Healthcare Facilities

HEALTHCARE FACILITIES

The Vital Role of Airflow Control

In healthcare facilities, it is crucial to maintain strict airflow controls to prevent the spread of various airborne pathogens, bacteria, fungi-laden dust from renovation, mycobacterium tuberculosis, influenza, asthma, VOCs, and other infectious maladies and odors. ASHRAE Standard 170 provides detailed requirements to ensure the environmental control of patient care spaces for comfort, asepsis, and odor control. These requirements aim to prevent the spread of contaminants to adjacent spaces, ensuring the safety and well-being of patients and staff. EBTRON airflow measurement technology offers solutions needed to uphold these critical standards and maintain the highest level of protection and care within healthcare facilities.

Improve infection control

Ensure proper air changes

Save energy

MEDICAL OFFICE BUILDINGS (MOB) Or Physician's Office Buildings (POB)

5 Air Changes Per hour

MOB/POB facilities under hospital licensure are required to meet the same requirements as hospital spaces. All rely on some of the same principles of air system operation as other health-related spaces. EBTRON airflow measurement products help building managers verify sufficient dilution ventilation to mitigate the potential for disease transmission and reliable pressure barriers to protect occupants from exposure to the risk of airborne infection. Pressurization flow is left for the design authority to designate based on the use of the space, due to the multiplicity of space uses and occupancies.

PATIENT ROOMS

6 air changes per hour

The last thing healthcare providers want is for a patient being treated for one malady to acquire another as a result of their visit to the hospital. Statistics allow us to estimate that a small but significant percentage of Hospital Acquired Infections (of which 1/3 are airborne) cause about 4,400 deaths in the U.S. annually. Healthcare ventilation accreditation standards require 6 Air Changes per Hour (ACH) for these rooms. EBTRON measurement products possess high reliability in performance and longevity and near zero drift over 10 years.

SURGERIES, TRAUMA AND ENDO SUITES

15-20 air changes per hour, Positive Pressurization

Similar to other protective environments, surgeries, ORs, invasive treatment rooms, etc. require that controls prevent the migration of harmful diseases or pathogens from entering the space. This type of service duty provides needed pressurization flow control to some of the greatest contributors to hospital revenue. Reliability of the components needed to keep it running are paramount. EBTRON has provided thousands of sensors for flow control in operating rooms and treatment spaces, learning much and sharing our knowledge with healthcare customers over the last 30 years.

AIRBORNE INFECTION ISOLATION
(ALL) ROOMS

12 air changes per hour, Negative Pressurization

Those with contagious or otherwise communicable diseases are generally placed in isolation from most hospital staff and other patients. The air systems are designed and controlled so that air flows into the space before being highly filtered or exhausted directly outside the facility. EBTRON’s airflow measurement technology is the most reliable and ideal solution to provide measurable airflow, ensuring negative pressure flow for Isolation rooms.

PROTECTIVE ENVIRONMENT (PE) ROOMS

12 air changes per hour, Positive Pressurization

The most vulnerable of those housed in healthcare facilities include: bone-marrow recipients, newborn infants, those in burn units and critical care patients. They must be ‘protected’ from exposure to diseases which may be carried by staff or the duct system in the facility. EBTRON pressurization flow and ventilation control devices are significant tools to prevent diseases from attacking the most vulnerable while healing.