Hospitals are increasing the efficiency and performance of their HVAC systems in an effort to curtail the airborne spread of the coronavirus. Many are also upgrading filters that can remove the virus and prevent new cases of COVID-19. Now, healthcare organizations also are taking a look at HVAC systems and ventilation in other healthcare facilities, and what they are finding is not always positive.

Recent decades have seen the growth of stand-alone clinics, ancillary clinics to hospital systems, clinics in retail pharmacies, urgent care centers, and even hybrid clinic-primary care physician offices. But with that growth has come some concern about whether clinics meet safety standards. Investigators with the University of Texas wanted to find out how well clinics are ventilated, according to Infection Control Today.

“Overall, the results indicate that the evaluated outpatient clinics did not fully meet health care ventilation standards as listed in the Standard 170 for Ventilation in Health Care Facilities,” investigators conclude. The standard establishes the parameters for ventilation of healthcare facilities.

“Lower than standard air changes per hour [ACH] were observed and could lead to an increased risk of spread of diseases when conducting advanced procedures and evaluating persons of interest for emerging infectious diseases,” the study states.

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