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 Thailand emerges from a late but devastating wave of COVID-19 infections, the pandemic has shown the vital importance of our healthcare institutions having the flexibility to deal with new threats as they emerge.
As a major destination for medical tourism, Thailand relies more heavily than most on getting healthcare HVAC right.
Pre-pandemic, the growth of the medical tourism sector had been pegged to boost the growth of the overall tourism sector by 16% a year.
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.
