The pandemic – and the intense pressure it put on hospitals and healthcare facilities – has highlighted the importance of hospital HVAC design that allows for flexible use.
- What a hospital HVAC system designed for flexibility could look like
- How the right ventilation design can make healthcare facilities more flexible
- How filtration can be designed to be deployed as needed
- What role sterilisation can play a larger role in fighting infection’s spread.
Infection control has always been a focus of HVAC systems in healthcare environments.
However, COVID-19 is just the latest in a growing list of infectious diseases that show how even world-class health facilities can be caught short and overwhelmed.
While Hong Kong has so far felt fewer public health impacts than many other nations, the pandemic has shown the vital importance of our healthcare institutions having the flexibility to deal with new threats as they emerge.
Success in the future will involve hospitals and other healthcare centres prioritising investment in their HVAC systems. It will come from redesigning functionality and replacing components to allow for a new level of adaptability of spaces. These healthcare spaces must be able to maintain indoor air quality and infection control even as circumstances and needs change, against a backdrop of ever-increasing demands for energy efficiency.
Understanding how to factor that flexibility into ventilation, filtration and sterilisation systems will be crucial.
