HEATING AND VENTILATING
Creating a ‘trustworthy’ healthcare environment
The pandemic has further highlighted our concerns about the ‘health’ of our built environments, and nowhere is this more pronounced than in hospitals and healthcare facilities. ‘Next generation’ building energy management technology can help supply the answer, explains John Dorward, senior Design partner – Healthcare, at Trend Control Systems, part of the Honeywell Building Technologies division.
Health and environmental issues continue to dominate the world’s headlines. As a result, our awareness of contagion and pollution, and their effects on us, has never been higher. From travel and transport, to workplaces, hospitals, and other healthcare facilities, we are now more sensitive about standards of cleanliness and the risks of infection than ever before. In the wake of the pandemic, we have all become acclimatised to a new environmental experience that centres to an ever greater degree on safety and wellbeing. These issues are having a direct impact on the health sector, which has had to adapt to accommodate both the immediate and longer-term results of the global health crisis. For example, people have been going to hospital to visit family and friends less, and many doctor’s appointments have been conducted not face-to-face, but via telephone consultations. Encouraging people to go to hospital or visit their doctor if they are ill may – in some cases - require support and encouragement, as many individuals are understandably anxious about returning to hospital waiting rooms and GPs’ surgeries. Healthcare-acquired infections are also still a concern.
Practical and psychological benefits Fortunately, the steps taken to mitigate these concerns offer both practical and psychological benefits – it’s not just a matter of making patient, visitor, and staff spaces cleaner or safer; it’s also important that these steps are publicised to make them feel safer, too. Creating and maintaining confidence is every bit as important as the underlying steps and practical measures that have been put in
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In the wake of the pandemic, we have all become acclimatised to a new environmental experience that centres to an ever greater degree on safety and wellbeing.
place. Many of the initial steps taken in the face of the new and different pressures posed by the pandemic were remedial – stop-gap solutions designed to maintain an immediate continuity of operation. Since then, time, and more detailed considerations, have enabled building / Estates managers and their teams to better assess the needs of their property portfolio from a number of perspectives.
A controlled environment The concept of a ‘healthy building’ isn’t new, although it has been intensified during the two years. As a result, there’s a bigger picture starting to come into focus; an environment that’s based on three
It’s important that the steps are publicised to make patients, visitors, and staff feel safer. Creating and maintaining confidence is every bit as important as the underlying steps and practical measures that have been put in place
interrelated pillars than can all improve occupant comfort: n Indoor air quality. n Lighting. n Compliance with new regulations (e.g., social distancing, mask detection, contact tracing). Taken in combination, these can deliver a healthier space that better supports the needs of its occupants, as well as helping to provide reassurance that it is safer.
Improving air quality Properly ventilating hospitals and healthcare facilities requires a careful balance between bringing in oxygenated air from outdoors, and removing stale air heavy with carbon dioxide. Using indoor air quality sensors as part of a wider building energy management system (BEMS) is an effective way of monitoring the presence of a range of pollutants. The latest generation of sensors enables building owners to strategically equip their buildings without significant expenditure. Alongside managing the rate of air exchange, the use of air
April 2022 Health Estate Journal 51
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