Ventilation of Health Care Facilities

Abstract

This request for interpretation refers to the requirements in ANSI/ASHRAE/ASHE Standard 170-2013, Section 7.1a and Table 7.1, regarding clean workroom classifications.

Table 7.1 contains two different spaces where the space function is termed “Clean workroom”.

One is under the major heading of “Central Medical and Surgical Supply”, and the other under the heading of “Support Space”.

The former designation has requirements that exclude air recirculation by means of room units and adds both a maximum humidity and a specific operating temperature range to the HVAC design parameters.

Both room types have the same minimum outside air and total air exchange requirements and neither requires all air to be exhaust to the outdoors.

It is often difficult to get owner/operators or project architects to clarify which of the two types of Clean Workroom are include in their proposed design.

Our interpretation is that the only Clean Workrooms that should be treated as listed for Central Medical and Surgical Supply spaces are those for larger facilities with multiple departments, all using a common sterile processing area (i.e. a hospital’s CSS department – Central Sterile Supply) and that the latter, Support Space Clean Workroom, should apply to smaller outpatient facilities with small dedicated rooms used for cleaning and sterilizing medical instruments (i.e. a dental tool cleaning room).