How important is AC in hospitals and the medical industry

If you think about what it takes to run hospitals and medical facilities, air conditioning may not be the first thing that comes to mind. In actual fact, however, air conditioning is literally vital to keeping these facilities running and we would like to take this opportunity to inform you about the importance of healthcare and surgery air conditioning.

A/C keeps facilities clean and safe

In most environments, air conditioning is mainly installed for comfort and maybe productivity. In hospitals and medical facilities, however, its main purpose is to ensure safety for patients, staff and visitors. This is why the air conditioning in hospitals and medical facilities is designed with very different considerations to other forms of air conditioning.

Healthcare air conditioning is designed for ultimate controllability. For example, a typical medical air con set-up would allow for a high degree of flexibility in zoning different parts of the facility. There are three main reasons for this. Firstly, it allows staff to isolate patients with potentially dangerous airborne illnesses.

Secondly, it ensures that each part of the facility can be kept at its own optimum temperature, humidity level and, if necessary, air-pressure level. Thirdly, it minimizes or eliminates the spread of physical particles that can compromise hygiene. It’s worth noting that failures in medical air con can lead to fatalities and significant financial damages.

Medical and healthcare air conditioning is also likely to be linked to air purifiers to ensure the very highest standards of hygiene. Similarly, medical air conditioning will also tend to maximize the rate at which fresh air (from outside) is drawn into the building and used air expelled from it. Medical air con systems are also cleaned and maintained particularly regularly.

Air conditioning protects equipment and supplies

Medical staff can only do their jobs effectively if they have suitable equipment and supplies. In many cases, the equipment and supplies need to be kept at a certain temperature and/or level of humidity. If this is breached then equipment can suffer a catastrophic failure and supplies can be rendered useless.

To make the situation even more challenging, the correct temperature and humidity levels can vary according to the function of the area. This is exactly why healthcare and surgery air conditioning has to be designed to allow for zoning on both a large and a small scale.

For example, most hospitals will have many areas which are open to the public. This could mean anything from the lobby to refreshment/convenience facilities to waiting areas, corridors and some visiting areas. These are likely to require very different conditions from areas such as operating theatres, clean rooms and some examination rooms.

Even implementing the most basic of facilities can have special implications for A/C in medical environments. For example, many hospitals have kitchen facilities. Hospital managers need to ensure that cooking fumes and debris are safely contained within the kitchen so they cannot compromise the hygiene in medical areas.

A/C cools down everyone in the hospital

Dominic Little, Director of Chill Air Conditioning commented, "Last but definitely not least air con simply helps to keep everyone in the hospital at a comfortable temperature. In some cases, this may play an important role in the quality of their work. For instance, surgeons in operating theatres often need to focus intensely. It’s in everyone’s best interests that they are kept physically comfortable."

Similarly, patients should be focussing all their energy on getting better. In some cases, this can literally be a matter of life and death. Again, they should not be distracted by avoidable physical discomfort.

The nature of hospitals and other medical facilities is such that they tend to heat up very easily. They often have a lot of people in them and a lot of equipment working (at least in the daytime). Many will have kitchens and furnaces both of which typically produce a lot of heat. It’s therefore vital to have an effective cooling system in place.