Dust Closes Operating Rooms

A major General Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario, has been forced to shut seven out of their eight operating rooms for one week due to heavy amounts of dust particles.

The problem was discovered by staff members only after new air handling units were installed. They thought, after 2 days of closure and cleaning, the problem would go away, but 95 operations later… the problem was still there.

No matter what type of air handling system it is, whether commercial, residential or institutional…the air duct system must ALWAYS be checked and cleaned as necessary. Preventative maintenance goes a long way… especially in such important areas as a hospital.

This was really surprising to hear, because we’ve worked in many hospitals over the years and from what we’ve seen, the hospital staff is very concerned about air quality. And their filtration systems are quite amazing.

We were recently working on the HVAC duct systems at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, and every time they even shut the HVAC system down, they have to do a critical cleaning once it starts up again. That means they have to painstakingly disinfect every surface of everything in the room, and that is no easy task! From our experience working there, it was very clear that the staff will take every effort to minimize infection and maximize patient safety.

Check out this video we found about air quality in a new hospital, not in Ontario, but it does show that our health care professionals are indeed very aware of air quality in our operating rooms.

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