CNYSHE; Monthly Chapter Luncheon; R. F. Peck / Phoenix Control

HVAC Design Practices for Zero Infections

Hospital operating rooms are among one of the most infection-sensitive environments within a healthcare facility. Surgery increases a patient’s vulnerability to pathogens transmitted from surgical personnel, surgical equipment, airflow in the operating room, and a patient’s own skin flora. Two of every 100 surgeries in the US result in surgical site infections (USCDC). Surgical site infections K*ll on average 100,000 patients per year.

With several research studies relating airborne particulate count to surgical site infections, there continue to be no regulated standards for airborne particulate levels in most US healthcare facilities. ASHRAE 170 does not address airborne particulate levels in operating rooms. However, standards for airborne containment control are extremely well-defined for semiconductor and pharmaceutical clean rooms. Although not required by codes or law, these proven design solutions/technologies reduce airborne contamination and improve operating room performance. They are commercially available in the US to provide proper pressurization control of the surgery suite and data analytics using real-time sensors to understand the environmental quality of operating rooms. If these solutions are properly designed and deployed, the hospital can also significantly reduce energy costs related to heating/cooling/humidifying air serving these spaces resulting in a very attractive payback for the investment.

Learning Objectives:

1. The driving forces for improving hospital-acquired infection (HAI) control overall and surgical site infections (SSIs) specifically.

2. The importance of airflow patterns and their effect on particle migration using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models.

3. Best practices from other industries requiring clean spaces and how they can positively affect airflow in an operating room setting.

4. How operating room pressurization can impact surgical site infections; controls that can be implemented to reduce the risk of airborne contamination.

5. How a real-time indoor environmental quality (IEQ) Surveillance Solution and predictive modeling software can provide operating room monitoring and risk scoring and advise the surgical team whether conditions to operate are favourable (clean) or not (higher risk of infections).

Presenter Dave Rausch

David Rausch joined Phoenix Controls in 2006, and is currently the business development manager for the Healthcare and Research Markets. He has been involved in many aspects of product management, product design and project design of specialty mechanical devices and controls within the Healthcare and Research industry for over 20 years. As an active member and distinguished speaker of ASHRAE, he has held executive positions in TC 9.10 (Lab Systems) and was a past Chair for TC 2.2 (Plant and Animal). He now is an associate member of TC 9.6 (Healthcare) and TC 9.11 (Clean Rooms) and speaks at numerous critical environment conferences throughout the year. David was also an active member of NFPA – Building Fire Safety Systems section and is a voting member of NFPA 45 Technical committee – Laboratories using Chemicals for over 10 years.

Contact Information:

Dave Rausch

978-795-3430

[email protected]

Host or Publisher Central New York Society of Healthcare Engineers