Step Inside an AnteRoom: Your First Line of Defense Against Bacteria and Viruses

There is never a good time to put your patients and staff at risk of irritation and infection, but when your hospital is disrupted by construction activities or a full patient roster, it can feel overwhelming to ensure the best possible safety measures for your facility. 

The risk of spreading disease is always present. Still, between patients potentially taking on Hospital-acquired Infections (HAIs) or staff experiencing stress and burnout, the dangers of bacteria and viruses are significant to everyone inside your facility’s walls. The spread of HAIs can happen all too easily. With so many people in a confined space, potential diseases can be spread easily. Whether from medical staff moving from area to area, contaminated surfaces, or dangerous airborne particles, these risks have the potential to majorly disrupt your hospital’s daily operations. 

Whether you have upcoming renovation or maintenance work or are planning for your infection control strategy, you may be wondering what solutions are available to you outside of dust containment or air purifiers for viruses and bacteria. A high-quality anteroom hospital solution provides a valuable tool for managing the flow of traffic and germs through your facility. The risks of modern healthcare are great, but with an anteroom, your facility is equipped with the flexibility to handle potential disruptions safely.

3 Ways to Maximize Patients’ Safety with an Anteroom

Class V Containment and Patient Isolation

Above all else, the purpose of dust containment is to contain potentially harmful viruses and bacteria that latch onto dust particles to limit the spread of disease. For facilities with an anteroom, this process becomes much more streamlined. When an anteroom in a hospital is used properly, it offers a Class V infection control area to protect high-risk patients. This can be used to seal off infectious patients to limit the spread of their condition or to keep a particularly sensitive patient safely away from other patients. Whichever direction you need, an anteroom provides an additional layer of protection for your facility, acting as an instant isolation room when your facility demands it. 

For an added barrier, consider pairing your anteroom with a negative air machine to create a negative air pressure in the desired area. With this combination of an anteroom and negative air machine, you’re not only adding a vestibule to separate the isolated space from the rest of your facility, but you’re also able to better control the flow of air — as well as the airborne particles it contains — to limit the spread of disease and harmful contaminants. 

Renovation

By definition, renovation means major disruption for your facility. Existing structures or entire areas may be disturbed or demolished, launching large amounts of potentially harmful particles into the air. Insulation, drywall, paint, flooring, and many other materials can play host to more sinister particles like mold, asbestos, bacteria, and viruses. 

Beyond just irritating surrounding patients and staff, these particles can spread disease around your facility if left unchecked. These activities often happen close to patient care areas and pose a major risk of HAIs to sensitive or immunocompromised individuals. Anterooms can provide a solution by providing a physical barrier between a renovation work area and patient or staff areas. With an enclosed area for equipment and protective gear to be cleaned or removed, an anteroom creates further space between active renovation work and your facility’s daily care activities. 

Construction

When construction projects are looming, the process of containing dust and debris becomes more challenging. This is especially true for large-scale construction projects where entire additions to a building may leave large areas open to potential HAIs. Heavy machinery, demolition, and any number of other construction activities notoriously kick up large amounts of dust and debris — including potentially harmful and disease-causing particles. For facilities with an anteroom, closing off these affected areas becomes simple. With strategically placed anterooms, you’re able to seal off impacted areas and protect sensitive patient areas from resulting dust and airborne contaminants. The best part about selecting an anteroom over other barrier solutions is that it still allows full accessibility to construction teams and hospital staff to come and go as needed. We highly recommend selecting a negative air machine like our HEPAFORCE® Air Negative Air Machine and Scrubber to pair with your anteroom to create a safely sealed space to protect from the disruptions and dangers of ongoing construction activities like ductwork, drilling, sanding, and more that pose a risk to patients and staff alike. 

Complete Cost-effective Renovations with an Anteroom

Operating a healthcare facility during renovation projects is essential for continuity of care and financial stability. Despite the potential high costs associated with renovations, an anteroom presents a cost-effective, efficient solution for maintaining patient safety and comfort. Its quick installation process not only saves time but also significantly reduces the financial impact of renovation projects, allowing for better allocation of resources towards patient care.

If you’re considering the value that an anteroom may bring to your medical facility, take a look at the cost-benefit analysis below. 

The Critical Role of Anterooms in Enhancing Hospital Safety

When your facility needs to create significant physical separation while still allowing movement between spaces, an anteroom is an excellent choice to stop the spread of dust, bacteria, viruses, and other harmful airborne particles in your medical center. When there is adequate separation and a securely sealed barrier, your facility can more powerfully remove and contain dust from the air and create a safer and more healthy environment for everyone inside. 

The Combined Power of an AnteRoom and Negative Air Machine 

Looking for even more protection from the spread of bacteria and viruses in your facility? When you combine an anteroom with the power of a negative air machine, you’re able to not only create a physical barrier between spaces, but you’re able to guard the transition between spaces with an artificially created negative air pressure as well. This combination allows the anteroom to act as a vestibule to safely move from one area to another, while the negative air machine creates a negative air pressure to only allow air into the space rather than out of it. Essentially, this can create an environment where harmful particles are easily contained while not able to escape — or spread potential HAIs —  to other areas of your facility. 

Incorporating anterooms into your facility's infection prevention strategy is not just about meeting current needs — it's about preparing for the future. They offer an adaptable, efficient means to ensure continuous patient care and safety, regardless of the challenges that renovations or infectious disease outbreaks may present.

Choose Anterooms as a Strategic Investment in Healthcare Safety

The health of your patients and the safety of your staff should never be compromised by necessary construction or renovation work within your facility. Anterooms, especially when used alongside negative air machines, offer a powerful, flexible solution to maintain high standards of air quality and infection control. By integrating these tools into your infection prevention protocols alongside dust containment and air purifiers for viruses and bacteria, you’re able to safeguard your facility against the spread of bacteria and viruses at a moment’s notice. 

Download our comprehensive pricing guide today to explore how an anteroom can fit into your facility's health and safety strategy and understand the cost implications.