Clean air in Healthcare | Hospitals | GP surgeries | Care homes | Dentists | Veterinary practices | Waiting rooms
Waiting rooms in healthcare can be a hotbed for airborne infections. And in the winter months, these rooms are less likely to be adequately ventilated. They can also be crowded with clinically vulnerable patients in attendance.
A powerful air cleaner can filter the air in a waiting room, trapping nano-particles including pathogens. While it can make a huge difference to the viral load in the air, it cannot prevent any transmissions that occur at short-range. This is the same for all air purifiers so do be mindful of outlandish claims from so called 'medical' devices.
Mechanical ventilation is designed to dilute the air rather than remove particles so if you would like to reduce pathogens from the air, read on...
Combining ventilation and filtration is the best way to reduce long-range transmission rates but the cost of increasing ventilation doesn't just affect your budget, it also increases your carbon footprint. A recent study on portable air purifiers to reduce aerosols found it markedly reduced the aerosol concentration, thus lowering exposure level to occupants. It concluded by recommending implementation of portable air cleaners to reduce the crippling patient backlogs without exposing people to increased infection risk and without resulting in significant infrastructure costs.
It should be noted that the air cleaners tested in this research all had a lower clean air delivery rate than all the Smart Air recommended air purifiers for hospitals and healthcare.
| Waiting Room sample illustration | Blast (sp2)* | Blast (sp3)* |
|---|---|---|
| Room dimensions (m²) | 30 | 30 |
| Ceiling height (m) | 2.4 | 2.4 |
| No of Air Changes an Hour (ACH) | 9.4 | 13.2 |
| Carbon footprint (8hrs/day, 5 days a week)* | 35 kg CO²e | 50.9 kg CO²e |
| Cost per patient** | £0.42 | £0.42 |
| Yearly running cost (8hrs/day, 5 days a week) | £41 | £60 |
* Less than a desktop monitor. Portable air cleaners have a lower carbon footprint than increasing mechanical ventilation and due to the low wattage, the Smart Air products are substantially lower than other brands in healthcare settings
** Here's a quick and easy way to work out the 'per patient' cost for your clinic. Divide the cost of purchasing portable air cleaners across all areas of your practice, by the number of registered patients. Don't forget to include the waiting areas, and make sure you are aware how many air changes you will get at a noise level that can be tolerated by staff and patients. So for this illustration with Blast Minis, it cost £2,500 (6 treatment rooms, a waiting room, reception area and a staff room) to kit out this clinic and with 6,000 registered patients, the cost per patient is 42p.
We can advise on the kind and number of units to fully equip your space with cleaner and filtered air
