Negative Air: Unmasking the Silent Hero in Our Hospitals

When it comes to healthcare, every breath counts — literally. Patients exchange air and potentially share a whole host of airborne contaminants with every inhale and exhale. As anyone in the healthcare space can tell you, it doesn’t take much for a harmless cold or runny nose to become a much larger problem when it is spread around to sensitive patients. Is your facility equipped to stop the spread of infection in its tracks? 

Negative air machines are a powerful tool in keeping your healthcare facility safe from airborne contamination, but how might they best serve your particular needs? This blog explores how they work, how to use them best, and why this equipment can elevate your entire infection control strategy. 

Negative Air Machines: Powering Through the Pandemic

Negative pressure rooms, often called isolation rooms, are specialized hospital rooms designed to trap and isolate airborne pathogens through a negative air machine. These rooms are critical in treating and containing patients with contagious airborne diseases. From measles to tuberculosis or the most recent major offender, COVID-19, contaminated particles in the air can be extremely dangerous to the patients and staff in your medical facility. When your healthcare center is appropriately equipped with negative air machinery, you can limit the spread of harmful pathogens and better protect particularly vulnerable patient groups by controlling airflow through different areas.

Negative air pressure ensures that when the door to a room opens, the contaminated air inside doesn't escape into other parts of the facility. Instead, the room has “negative air,” meaning that air flows in when the door is opened, creating an isolated environment for treating the affected patient. Similarly, negative air machines can be a game-changer for construction or renovation projects in a healthcare setting for the same reason. While dust and debris might be dislodged from the demolition of flooring or walls, a negative air machine can keep contaminated air from unintentionally leaking into other facility areas. 

Level Up Your Infection Control 

For an added layer of protection, consider pairing a HEPAFORCE® AIR Negative Air Machine with an anteroom. These two combined will help your facility section off sensitive patients or infected personnel while maintaining a safe environment for the rest of the hospital. Wherever they are used in a healthcare setting, these barriers protect other patients, visitors, and frontline healthcare workers from exposure to airborne pathogens.

How Do Negative Air Machines Work? 

How is it possible to create “negative air?” We’re glad you asked. Negative air machines, such as our own HEPAFORCE AIR Negative Air Machine, use a complex series of fan systems that powerfully pull air from out of the isolated area and either redirect the air outside or push it through a High-efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter before releasing it back into another area of the facility. This added layer of HEPA filtration can remove 99.97% of particles down to 0.3 microns in size from the air, including the majority of harmful contaminants such as dust, mold spores, and disease-causing bacteria. 

By creating and then maintaining this pressure difference, negative air machines allow healthcare centers to ensure that any air leaving the isolated room is highly filtered and unable to spread the infection to other areas of the facility. While they all work similarly, you’ll want to ensure that your equipment of choice is built with quality in mind and will help your investment to stretch as far as possible in the fight against the spread of infection.

Preventing Hospital-acquired Infections With Negative Air

Creating negative air pressure minimizes the potential escape of contaminated air around doors and windows, keeping the entire facility safer. These machines are particularly effective at reducing hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) because of their unique ability to control airflow between areas. This technology can prevent the spread of disease and infection, whether from patient-to-patient transmission or contamination originating from construction or renovation projects within the facility. Whatever the case, great-quality negative air machines help set your facility up for success in infection control. 

Making the Most of Negative Air Machines in Renovations

While negative air machines are incredibly valuable tools in the fight against infection, there are several steps that you and your staff can take to help them be as effective as possible.

Assess the Environment

Consider the space before you even think about installing a negative air machine. What is the size of the area needing renovation? How closely is it situated to patient rooms? Is proper ventilation feasible? While negative air machines are fantastic for controlling the flow of air between spaces, it takes the right environment to set everything up for maximum effectiveness. Consider the area first and then make any necessary adjustments to ensure your equipment can do its best work in the space. 

Ensure Proper Ventilation

Ventilation is at the core of the negative air machine's efficacy. The fan system forcibly pushes air through a HEPA filter before exhausting it elsewhere. If HEPA filtration is unavailable, you must ventilate the air outside the facility. After all, you don’t want to push harmful air into other potentially sensitive areas of your medical center. Before beginning any kind of installation process, establish a comprehensive ventilation strategy with your team. 

Calculate the Required ACH

Air Changes per Hour (ACH) is a critical metric representing the air volume that can be added or removed from a space in one hour. Simply put, one “air change” happens every time the old air in the room is completely replaced with fresh air. This measure plays a major role in infection control because it dictates how much a room can be considered clean and safe. While facilities housing immunocompromised patients generally require a minimum of 15 ACH, spaces without highly vulnerable patients accept 12 ACH. A higher risk of infection means that ACH must be more intense to help flush any potential infection out of the space or redirect it outdoors, which will be much less likely to cause harm to sensitive patients. Make sure that you note this when deciding on the equipment you will use.

Change Filters When Needed

Unless your negative air machine directs air to vent outside, you’ll rely heavily on HEPA filters to keep the area safe and the spread of infection to a minimum. An old, inefficient HEPA filter becomes a liability and does nothing good. Neglected filters allow more particles to escape than is acceptable and can be responsible for spreading disease within your facility. Don’t forget to change out your HEPA filters regularly, according to the manufacturer's guidelines, to maintain peak performance. This small item on your maintenance checklist can greatly affect your facility’s overall health and safety.

Elevate Your Facility’s Safety With Negative Air Machines

Infection control is a non-negotiable in your healthcare facility for the benefit of everyone who enters your doors. When every breath of air must be clean and infection-free, negative air machines equip your team to clean and redirect the air to keep everyone inside safe. Whether you're considering upcoming hospital renovations or looking for ways to upgrade your infection prevention game, investing in a top-quality negative air machine, like the HEPAFORCE AIR Negative Air Machine, is a decision that will pay dividends in health and peace of mind. 

Ready to get started? Don't miss our comprehensive pricing guide, which breaks down the HEPAFORCE AIR Negative Air Machine options designed to match your facility's specific requirements. Download it now and take your first step towards an even safer healthcare environment.