The Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) Team building the Menino Pavilion addition and renovation project at Boston Medical Center have selected the Huntair CLEANSUITE Operating Room Ceiling System for 6 surgery suites and 2 cardiovascular surgery suites to be built as part of the project.  The IPD Team, including program manager Tocci Building Companies, architect and engineer TRO JB, construction manager Suffolk Construction, and owner Boston Medical Center, will work with Huntair and their local representative, APA LLC of Canton, MA to provide the CLEANSUITE systems, which will be installed by Cox Engineering of Canton, Mass.

The CLEANSUITE System is a modular, fully-integrated diffuser system for low turbulence, laminar flow applications.  As the leader in providing ceiling systems for manufacturing environments including semiconductor, pharmaceutical, and other sensitive products, Huntair has developed the CLEANSUITE Operating Room Ceiling System to provide laminar flow to the surgical sterile field while incorporating equipment and light booms, HEPA filtered air delivery, lighting, fire protection, and med-gas routing in a modular, factory-built design.

Traditional ceiling plenum systems for operating room environmental control are field-built and require significant coordination between trades representing structural, mechanical, and utility services (electrical, plumbing, sheet metal, and specialty services such as medical gas).  The modular design and sole source responsibility offered by the CLEANSUITE system provides several benefits over traditional construction, including less coordination of trades onsite, higher quality control, fewer coordination related change orders, and much faster installation times.  Also, a recent ASHRAE Journal article noted that the use of this design, known as a single large diffuser (SLD), can considerably reduce the amount of airborne contaminants at the surgical site, without increasing energy consumption.

The multi-phased Menino addition and renovations project is scheduled to be completed in April 2018.  BMC’s clinical campus redesign is a four year project that will prepare BMC for changing models of healthcare delivery.  BMC plans to upgrade clinical facilities, centralize operating and intensive care rooms, streamline operations, and make BMC facilities more environmentally efficient.