What is the value of a healthy and productive human being in a building? If you go to work with a cold, work slowly, and perhaps infect your co-worker, how much money has your employer lost? What are the unseen influences of your office building, hospital room, classroom or home on your health and performance?
The debate about the need (or lack of a need) for humidification in buildings rages on. I recently had an interesting conversation with an engineer who specializes in desiccant technology, in particular, dehumidification for operating rooms where the temperature is lowered to keep clinicians wearing sterile gowns comfortable.
Hospitals comingle infectious agents at their strongest with humans at their weakest. Proper relative humidity may be the greatest remaining underused weapon against HAIs.
This month’s Facility File will focus on the B2B November test for HVAC applications to replace an existing cooling tower at a pharmaceutical facility.
The Atlantic Club, a health club in Red Bank, NJ, faced the decision of paying ongoing maintenance costs for an aging 15-year-old indoor pool dehumidifier or prematurely replacing it with newer HVAC technology.
Operating rooms are home to some of the widest swings in required room conditions. Review three dehumidification options on the way to tailoring the right design for your next projects.
With a continuous pressure to decrease turnover time while also providing the medical staff with utmost flexibility, the design of the HVAC systems for today’s operating rooms requires not just special attention but also complex analyses.
Do hospital-acquired infections thrive in part because we are already dividing and diluting our opposing forces? The author suggests that it’s time to consolidate our resources and map out a more methodical attack.
Within a hospital facility, there is the environment health and safety (EH&S) department, medical equipment management department, custodial department, and O&M department, to mention just a few — each with their own infection control (IC) responsibilities.