When it comes to infection management, how should one select between natural and mechanical ventilation?
The following are the characteristics that should be considered before making this decision; in order to best control the spreading of infection one should consider the cost of the system and its available resources along with, of course the needs of the facility and its occupants, i.e. Hospitals and their patients.
The two systems differ quite a bit when it comes to these attributes. Natural ventilation has always been somewhat more of a cost-effective option due to the lower maintenance requirements and easy functionality of the system. Although creating a natural draft system to vent air out of certain buildings where infection is a high risk might not be the best option because of external and environmental conditions and thus proper ventilation that’s required will not be possible. Although for “non-clinical” areas it may just be a perfect solution, such as patient wards that are not usually required to have mechanically ventilated where opening windows will often be solution enough.
Due to the more precise ventilation ability of Mechanical ventilation systems, they are more useful when venting principal medical treatment areas such as; operation theatres where surgery takes place, airborne infection-isolation rooms and other related rooms. Although mechanical vents has its cons; apart from the fact that these systems are expensive to install and maintain it's important for airflow to be sufficient in rooms such as infection isolation rooms where it often is not. The recommended ventilation rate is often not reached, and the system may even fail to maintain negative pressure. In fact a lot of problems can come about related to the mechanical vents if the medical and technical personal do not have each other’s cooperation, and in that regard same goes for natural ventilation. Mechanical vents can also have clogged filters due to not being maintained properly.
This is why with either method it is imperative that not only should the ventilation systems be properly integrated with the buildings design and location, but also maintained and used correctly. Medical staff should be educated and informed about the operational performance of these ventilation systems for which they are intended.
Most problems affect both systems to some extent, but it's critical that the location of each system's placement is built and installed correctly, and that it's then managed, kept, and maintained effectively. Contact our experts at SFE Services for a Free Survey of your ventilation system.
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