hospital

It is evident from the existing research that poor thermal comfort can adversely affect the health and productivity of the occupants. The analysis of thermal comfort is even more significant in the health care environments where the occupants are potentially more vulnerable due to poor individual health (patients) and/or extended exposure to such conditions (staff). This study focuses on the evaluation of thermal comfort in hospitals’ recovery rooms considering both health care staff and patients.

This paper touches on historic indicators of good hospital design such as sun, daylight and natural ventilation. Evidence is provided that recent trends in hospital design that lean towards more highly serviced buildings with fixed windows lead to higher levels of Sick Building Syndrome, nosocomial infections and SARS CoV-2 related infections and deaths than in naturally ventilated buildings with opening windows.

For several years indoor comfort is measured in halls of hospitals by architecture students from the Delft University of Technology. Questionnaires and interviews have shows that patients and visitors have very few complaints about the indoor comfort in hospital halls.  

The indoor environment can play a significant role in the transmission of and exposure to various contaminants. In the case of some emerging aerial infections, such as those caused by influenza virus and tuberculosis virus, the airborne route of transmission is considered to be important for evaluating the health risk associated with exposure to contaminants.

Malaysia is situated near the equator of earth where the weather is hot and humid. The vulnerableenvironment has induced many Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) concerns in hospitals by health professions inmany countries. There is mounting evidence on IAQ exposure leading to excessive morbidity andmortality. Many extensive studies have been conducted but there is not many IAQ standard to-date.The objective of the study is to present the finding of the source of indoor air quality in a new hospital inMalaysia. The study also presents the solution to overcome the IAQ problem faced by the hospital.

This research clearly shows unpleasant odors in hospitals, with the goal of obtaining the basicinformation needed for formulating measures to control such odors. In the study, we conducted asurvey of the odor awareness of nursing staff members at 174 medical institutions, and compared theresults with past research related to odors in nursing homes for the elderly. 88.5% of the nurses sensedodors in hospitals. 81.0% considered it a problem and 67.2% recognized a need for improvement. Themost odorous places included sickrooms, sick wards, sanitary rooms, and lavatories.

The new wards of the S. Bortolo Hospital in Vicenza (Italy) are air-conditioned by a mixed systems of radiant panels and primary air.

In a test cell equipped with an operating table, a medical lamp and a manikin representing the surgeon, air velocity and tracer-gas concentration were automatically measured at more than 700 points. Numerical simulations were performed too for analyzing air quality in operating rooms. The results showed that the distribution of the contaminants depends strongly on the presence of obstacles like medical equipment and staff.

In Hong Kong, design and construction of new operating rooms and upgrading of older ones have been based on the UK Health Building Notes. In a case study, field measurements showed that the airflow and some design features did not tally with the specifed requirements.
As the risk of contamination in an operating room can be minimized through appropriate filtration and air distribution scheme, a CFD analysis was carried out with the simulation of the temperature distribution, airflow pattern and the contaminant dispersion.

Isolation rooms for airborne infectious agents requires special measures to prevent air from transporting agents from the patient to surrounding rooms. This paper presents measurements for two different solutions that demonstrate that good results could be obtained by selecting construction principles that prevents air leakages and by control of ventilation airflows interlocked to door positions. Further it is estimated how different parameters influences on the transfer of infectious agents from the patient room to the surroundings.