Indoor Air Quality in Healthcare Facilities

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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

   • Stefano Capolongo, Gaetano Settimo

   Pages 1-11

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

   • Gaetano Settimo

   Pages 13-26

4. Applications of IAQ Monitoring in International Healthcare Systems

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

   Pages 27-39

5. Hospital Environments and Epidemiology of Healthcare-Associated Infections

   • Daniela D’Alessandro, Gaetano Maria Fara

   Pages 41-52

6. Analysis of Microorganisms in Hospital Environments and Potential Risks

   • Lucia Bonadonna, Rossella Briancesco, Anna Maria Coccia

   Pages 53-62

7. Legionella Indoor Air Contamination in Healthcare Environments

   • Maria Teresa Montagna, Osvalda De Giglio, Maria Luisa Cristina, Roberto Albertini, Cesira Pasquarella, GISIO-SItI Working Group et al.

   Pages 63-71

8. Environmentally Friendly and Low-Emissivity Construction Materials and Furniture

   • Ilaria Oberti

   Pages 73-81

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

   • Cesare Maria Joppolo, Francesco Romano

   Pages 83-94

10. HVAC Management in Health Facilities

    • Umberto Moscato, Alice Borghini, Adele Anna Teleman

    Pages 95-106

11. Assessment of Indoor Air Quality in Inpatient Wards

    • Gaetano Settimo, Marco Gola, Veruscka Mannoni, Marco De Felice, Giorgio Padula, Ambra Mele et al.

    Pages 107-118

12. Back Matter

    Pages 119-132

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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.

• indoor air quality (IAQ)
• environmental health
• indoor air quality in healthcare settings
• indoor air quality in hospitals
• hospital environments and nosocomial infections
• microorganisms in hospital environments
• healthy construction materials
• hygiene management
• engineering plants for air quality in hospitals
• indoor air quality in inpatient wards
• air pollution exposure
• quality of life
• air pollution in confined environments
• multidisciplinary approach in health care
• hospital quality improvement strategies
• exposure to pollutants
• healing architecture
• healthy design
• indoor air quality in healthcare facilities
• air pollution and air quality

“This book joins other entries in the SpringerBriefs in Public Health, compact volumes that provide state-of-the-art reports. … A short communication that accurately advises decision-makers about air quality in healthcare facilities is urgently needed and this book does just that.” (J. Thomas Pierce, Doody's Book Reviews, November, 2017)

• Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

  Stefano Capolongo, Marco Gola

• Department of Environment and Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

  Gaetano Settimo

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.

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