Hospital-grade air purifiers are essential tools for protecting patient health in spirometry departments. They help you to clean the air and ventilate any given space, which involves replacing contaminated air with fresh air at a fast rate. This is especially important for clinical environments like spirometry departments, as they normally will have a high level of contaminants in the air. As such, the right air purifier will help to keep clinical settings like hospital wards, surgery rooms, and GP offices, protecting patient and staff health in the process.
In this article, we’re taking a closer look at the benefits of air purifiers for spirometry departments, as well as the advantages of hospital air purification in general.
Why hospital-grade air purifiers are essential for spirometry departments
Spirometry departments will be treating potentially high-risk and vulnerable patients with respiratory issues. Given the current climate and the rise of COVID-19 infections, it is paramount to implement measures to safeguard high-risk patients, as well as the general public.
The combination of spirometry tests and patients with respiratory problems is likely to disperse more airborne particles harboring bacteria and viruses than most other hospital departments. If the department is not well ventilated, these airborne contaminants will gather and remain in the room, increasing the risk of infection for staff and patients.
A hospital air purifier is an effective way to boost indoor ventilation and clean the air. They remove airborne particles, bacteria, viruses, and allergens from the air, creating a cleaner environment and reducing the risk of transmission of disease between staff and patients.
It’s essential to choose a hospital-grade air purifier for medical and healthcare departments. These air purifiers will be capable of efficiently filtering out all contaminants and pollutants in the space, providing a clean environment for patients.
Below, we’ll outline what a hospital-grade air purifier is. Which ones will help mitigate the transmission of disease in a spirometry department?
Get the Right HEPA Filter Technology
For air purifiers to be considered hospital-grade, they must utilize HEPA H13-H14 filters.
HEPA stands for ‘High Efficient Particulate Air’ and HEPA. Filters meet a specific standard set by the US Department of Energy. Only HEPA H13 and HEPA H14 filters meet medical standards and can be used in hospital settings like spirometry departments.
These air filters filter 99.97% and 99.995% of particles and pollutants from the air, respectively. They can also capture particulates as small as 0.3 microns in diameter. As air is pulled through the purifier, these filters trap pollutants, dust particles, viruses, and bacteria. And allergens, eliminating them from the air. This improves the air quality of patients with respiratory problems. And reduces irritants and allergens that could cause patients to cough. HEPA filters can also help to prevent the spread of viruses like COVID-19. By removing contaminated respiratory droplets from the air.
Overall, hospitals need to choose air purifiers with the right HEPA filter for the environment they’re in. Even though both H13 and H14 filters are classed. As medical-grade, the H14 filters will be the most effective for cleaning the air.
Sufficient Air Changes Per Hour
One crucial consideration when choosing an air purifier is how often it will filter the air in the room. The frequency at which an air purifier filters all of the air in a room within an hour is measured as air changes per hour (ACH). For example, an ACH of 10 means the air purifier filters the air in the room 10 times every hour.
According to NHS guidelines on the amount of time required for the clearance of aerosol, air purifiers in general wards and single rooms must have a minimum of 6 ACH, and purifiers in negative-pressure isolation rooms must have a minimum of 12 ACH.
Spirometry department air purifiers must match these specified air changes per hour.
You can calculate how many air changes per hour an air purifier will achieve. All you need to know is the volume of the room and the purifier’s Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) rating in cubic feet per minute (cfm). The CADR rating is essentially the power of the purifier. Telling you how many cubic feet of air it can clean per minute. The higher the CADR rating, the more efficient it is.
The formula for calculating ACH is:
60 x cfm / Volume of the room = ACH
The air purifier you choose must meet the ACH standards set by the NHS to be hospital-grade. The more air changes per hour the air purifier is capable of, the better.
How Can Mars Purifier Help?
The main criteria to look out for when selecting a hospital-grade air purifier are:
- The correct standard of HEPA filters
- The air purifiers’ CADR rating
Both of these must adhere to the standards set by the standards set by the NHS.
Our range of hospital air purifiers is specifically designed to be used in healthcare. They come with high-quality HEPA 13 filters and have CADR ratings of up to 1156. Which is large enough to use in most healthcare settings.
If you’d like to learn more about our healthcare air purifiers or have any questions about CADR or ACH, don’t hesitate to contact one of our team members.
