This interdisciplinary guide offers background, research findings, and practical strategies for assessing and improving air quality in hospitals and other healthcare settings. Positing good air quality as critical to patient and staff well-being, it identifies disease-carrying microbes, pollutants, and other airborne toxins and their health risks, and provides localized interventions for reducing transmission of pathogens. Effective large-scale approaches to air quality control are also outlined, from green building materials to hygienic HVAC and air treatment practices. Its thoroughness of coverage makes this book a vital resource for professionals involved in every aspect of health service facilities, from planning and construction to maintenance and management.Among the topics covered:
Existing guidelines in indoor air quality: the case study of hospital environments
Hospital environments and epidemiology of healthcare-associated infections
Analysis of microorganisms in hospital environments and potential risks
Legionella indoor air contamination in healthcare environments
HVAC system design in healthcare facilities and control of aerosol contaminants
Assessment of indoor air quality in inpatient wards

Indoor Air Quality in Healthcare Facilities imparts up-to-date expertise to a variety of professional readers, including hospitals' technical and management departments, healthcare facilities' chief medical officers, hospital planners, sport and thermal building designers, public health departments, and students of universities and schools of hygiene.

Stefano Capolongo, PhD, is an architect with a PhD in Public Health. He is associate professor at Politecnico di Milano and professor at the School of Specialization of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine at University of Milan and University of Parma. Prof. Arch. Capolongo is author of more than 200 scientific publications, and conducts research and scientific collaboration in the design for themes like building hygiene, environmental sustainability, and social-health architecture.

Gaetano Settimo, PhD, is researcher at Istituto Superiore di Sanità in the Department of the Environment and Primary Prevention in Rome, Italy.

Marco Gola is an architect and PhD candidate at Politecnico di Milano in Milan, Italy. He specializes in architecture for sustainability, hospital planning, and construction.

Foreword: Improving the Hospital's Indoor Air Quality

Carlo Signorelli and Stefano Capolongo

Indoor Air Quality in Healing Environments: Impacts of Physical, Chemical, and Biological Environmental Factors on Users

Stefano Capolongo and Gaetano Settimo

Existing Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality: The Case Study of Hospital Environments

Gaetano Settimo

Applications of IAQ Monitoring in International Healthcare Systems

Marco Gola, Ambra Mele, Barbara Tolino, and Stefano Capolongo

Hospital Environments and Epidemiology of Healthcare-Associated Infections

Daniela D'Alessandro and Gaetano Maria Fara

Analysis of Microorganisms in Hospital Environments and Potential Risks

Lucia Bonadonna, Rossella Briancesco, and Anna Maria Coccia

Legionella Indoor Air Contamination in Healthcare Environments

Maria Teresa Montagna, Osvalda De Giglio, Maria Luisa Cristina, Roberto Albertini, Cesira Pasquarella, GISIO-SItI Working Group, AIA Working Group, and SIMPIOS Working Group

Environmentally Friendly and Low-Emissivity Construction Materials and Furniture

Ilaria Oberti

HVAC System Design in Healthcare Facilities and Control of Aerosol Contaminants: Issues, Tools, and Experiments

Cesare Maria Joppolo and Francesco Romano

HVAC Management in Health Facilities

Umberto Moscato, Alice Borghini, and Adele Anna Teleman

Assessment of Indoor Air Quality in Inpatient Wards

Gaetano Settimo, Marco Gola, Veruscka Mannoni, Marco De Felice, Giorgio Padula, Ambra Mele, Barbara Tolino, and Stefano Capolongo

Perspectives of Air Quality Control in Healthcare Facilities: Conclusions

Gaetano Maria Fara

Index