2025 GAHFM Technical Education Conference-Healthcare Ventilatioon Basics 2025 with Case Study Content

Healthcare Ventilatioon Basics 2025 with Case Study Content

Pdf Summary

The Healthcare Special Ventilation Basics course, led by Mike Canales, focuses on ventilation design and its critical role in protecting patients and occupants in healthcare settings. It covers 2022 ASHRAE 170 standards—particularly Tables 7.1 and 6.4—highlighting ventilation requirements for various hospital spaces such as surgery, inpatient nursing, diagnostic units, and sterile processing, with distinct air exchange rates, pressure relationships, and filtration mandates.<br /><br />Key session objectives include understanding air exchange/dilution, differential pressures (positive, negative, or neutral), and their application in settings like Airborne Infection Isolation (AII) rooms, which require negative pressure and 12 air changes per hour (ACH), and Protective Environment (PE) rooms, which maintain positive pressure. The course explains that differential pressure controls airflow direction to minimize contamination risks, emphasizing proper envelope integrity (doors, ceiling tiles) and the impact maintenance activities have on ventilation compliance.<br /><br />Participants learn how to calculate air change rates using room volume and airflow (CFM), and the importance of filter placement and MERV ratings, with MERV 12+ filters requiring differential pressure gauges. The course also underscores the challenges posed by building stack effects and the necessity for routine testing methods, including tissue and smoke tests, to verify pressure relationships.<br /><br />Additional topics include handling water damage categories (clean, gray, black water) and classes (extent of damage), infection risks, mold-related incidents as exemplified by Seattle Children’s Hospital mold-related deaths, and the critical coordination of infection prevention protocols during maintenance or emergency responses. Questions about practical application of ICRA 2.0 guidelines and collaboration with Infection Prevention (IP) are addressed.<br /><br />Overall, the training reinforces the importance of maintaining ventilation system integrity, pressure differentials, and diligent documentation to ensure patient safety and regulatory compliance. It promotes professional development in healthcare facilities engineering through credentials like Certified Healthcare Facilities Technician (CHFT) and highlights the vital role of interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge transfer in sustaining safe, adaptable healthcare environments.

Keywords

Healthcare ventilation

ASHRAE 170 standards

Air exchange rates

Differential pressure

Airborne Infection Isolation rooms

Protective Environment rooms

MERV filtration

Ventilation compliance

Infection prevention

Healthcare facilities engineering