Hospital anticipated pandemic challenges
Posted 3/30/20
Lexington Medical Center strengthened infrastructure for CVD-19 patients
Special to the Chronicle
Foresight is twice as effective as hindsight.
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Hospital anticipated pandemic challenges
Posted
Lexington Medical Center strengthened infrastructure for CVD-19 patients
Special to the Chronicle
Foresight is twice as effective as hindsight.
Lexington Medical Center partnered with Dynamix Engineering in their $400 million expansion 6 years ago.
Hospital executives insisted on going beyond industry best practices to deal with modern problems.
LMC focused on what may happen tomorrow.
That vision for the future gave Dynamix Engineering the flexibility to design an HVAC system that was up to the challenge.
This expansive project added 250 beds, including 60 dedicated to critical care and renovated many existing structures.
This has given LMC flexibility to respond to the outbreak of CVD-19.
The design of LMC's heating and air cooling systems plays a critical role in helping to mitigate risk.
For surgical and critical-care patients, this takes the form of Positive Pressure rooms.
By using the HVAC system to supply slightly more air to a room, it creates a slightly higher pressure inside than in the halls around it. This results in the air from outside being unable to spread into areas with high-risk patients.
The flip side to a Positive Pressure room is a Negative Pressure room,to contain airborne contaminants within specific spaces.
What sets LMC apart is the degree to which they can create Negative/Positive pressure rooms. The system allows patient rooms on entire floors of the new patient wing to operate in Negative Pressure, as needed.
Other innovative strategies included HEPA filter racks in each unit, the ability to switch air handling units into outdoor air “purge” mode and setting up the system for all patient rooms to be converted to critical care air change rates.
The state-of-the-art control technology allows LMC to change room and floor conditions at the touch of a button.
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