Patient Room Design that Integrates the Personalized Ventilation System for Cross-Infection Control

Abstract

Many airborne diseases such as Coronavirus variants are spread from person to person by indoor air movement. This is of particular concern in healthcare environments such as hospitals. There is a significant body of research that suggests that indoor ventilation strategies such as personalized ventilation systems my help reduce the spread of these viruses. While there are studies related to the efficacy of air movement from personalized ventilation, there are very few studies that explore how best to integrate these systems into the design process for hospital patient rooms. This study focuses on how to integrate personalized ventilation (PV) and displacement ventilation (DPV) systems into patient room design. The aims of this study are to first, develop a procedure using the Choosing By Advantages approach to make design decisions related to the implementation for personalized ventilation and displacement ventilation in private and semi-private patient rooms to prevent cross-infection. Secondly, using this approach, design solutions are proposed for patient room layouts with PV and DPV in different locations. The study proposes the best locations and components of the PV and DPV ventilation air supply and exhaust. Further practical models/simulation rooms are required to test the impact of PV systems on patients' and nurses' daily activities.