THE IMPORTANCE OF HVAC SYSTEMS IN HOSPITALS

THE IMPORTANCE OF HVAC SYSTEMS IN HOSPITALS

When you enter a hospital, you hope to be in a comfortable environment. Without a calm and welcoming environment, patients do not feel at ease. Making it tough for them to recover. The indoor air quality, temperature, humidity, and ventilation play a vital role in improving comfort.

To do this, almost every hospital equips an HVAC system. It is the bigger version of a normal AC unit you have at home, with additional functions. With their varied functions, they are important for the safe and healthy operation of a hospital’s modular cleanroom, operating theatres, and other rooms with biomedical instruments.

 

Significance of HVAC Systems in Hospitals

In this blog, PRO AIR SOLUTION will detail the importance of HVAC systems in hospitals.

1. Enables air filtration

The outside world is full of vehicle emissions and filled with allergens. This poses a severe threat to vulnerable people and those who are in the process of recovering. Hence, an HVAC system uses air filters to prevent dust and allergen from entering the hospital.

When you look for HVAC products near me, always go for the one with the HEPA filters. They can filter particles as small as 0.3 microns. This greatly benefits hospitals where they house contagious patients in a separate wing. It restricts airborne diseases from spreading to other places while maintaining proper ventilation and airflow.

2. Provides comfort

Imagine resting in your hospital room after a surgery and feeling sweaty and congested. That doesn’t sound comfortable, does it? This is what the HVAC systems are for. Their primary aim is to improve the comfort of the patients, staff and all the other people present indoors.

Something as simple as increased humidity will make you feel uneasy. So, it is important to maintain proper humidity, temperature, and air quality. And, the only way to do that efficiently with less operational costs is through the HVAC systems.

3. Facilitates Healing

The process of healing is complex. Not only the physical aspects, but the mental aspects also matter a lot to the healing process. For many patients, it can be rather disturbing to recover in a hospital that doesn’t have proper ventilation. While others do not feel very welcome in an extremely humid atmosphere.

The heat also affects the physical healing process. Thus, HVAC systems with the ability to control air quality, temperature, humidity, and ventilation are extremely important for hospitals.

4. Improves equipment life

Some laboratory equipment and other medical equipment pose a requirement for cold rooms. You can easily attach the HVAC system to a modular cleanroom to store laboratory equipment safely.

For example, the rooms that have an MRI machine should have a lower temperature than the rest of the facility. This helps cool the room, which makes the job of the dedicated cooling system for the core magnet a little easier. Operating them at higher temperatures causes severe damage to the components and can pose threats to the patients.

The heating systems have separate controls for each room, which you can control from the primary control area. Thus, these systems again prove vital in improving the quality of the hospital’s service.

5. Saves Energy

Hospitals consume more energy than many commercial office buildings. They have heavy machines like MRI, CT, and other devices running at optimal capacity for the most part of the day. Hence, it is important to save costs where possible.

An HVAC system enables hospitals to do that. Instead of installing separate air conditioning units for each room, you can just install a central unit that finds its way across multiple rooms. Furthermore, it offers more functionality. For instance, being able to control the airflow is something a conventional AC wouldn’t be able to provide.

 

What are the challenges of installing HVAC systems for hospitals?

Installing the HVAC system is not without complications. It includes:

1. Lack of initial planning.
2. Poor hospital design.
3. Complexity in the requirements put forth by the hospital.
4. No dedicated space to house the central HVAC.

You can easily avoid all these challenges when opting for a modular cleanroom systems. However, it is always recommended that the design of the operating theatre and other rooms in the hospital must account for the HVAC from the initial design phases.

 

Conclusion

Hospital is a place for treatment and recovery. In this modern era, HVAC systems are a boon to multi-specialty hospitals that house thousands of patients at once. So, it is safe to say that these systems are indispensable for hospitals to run smoothly.