ANSI/ASHRAE/ASHE 170-2008 Offers Ventilation Design Requirements for Health Care Facilities
September 18, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
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The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers Inc. (ASHRAE) and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) authored a standard aimed at ensuring high-quality ventilation in health care facilities.
American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/ASHRAE/ASHE 170-2008 - Ventilation of Health Care Facilities, defines ventilation system design requirements that provide environmental control for comfort, as well as infection and odor control.
According to the organizations, this is the first ANSI standard in the nation to specifically address ventilation in health care facilities and is available for adoption by various authorities for health care facility construction such as city, state and federal governments and by private national organizations such as the Facilities Guidelines Institute and the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).
Without high-quality ventilation in health care facilities, patients, health care workers and visitors can become infected by simply breathing, the organizations said.
"Air-transmitted pathogens can be found everywhere in poorly ventilated health care facilities," Richard Hermans, chair of the committee that wrote the standard, said.
"Because these organisms are found in higher concentrations in hospitals and because patients are susceptible to them, additional care should be taken in the design of ventilation systems," Hermans said.
The standard addresses systems and equipment; space ventilation for a variety of areas in health care facilities, including airborne infection isolation rooms, critical care units, burn units, surgery rooms and Class B and C operating rooms; and planning, construction and system startup.
Source: American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers Inc. (ASHRAE).