Using Fans in Patient Care and Other Areas

• 7/14/2010
• Author: Kristine Miller
• Category: EC News Blog
• 7753 Views
• 0 Comments
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It’s summer, and the heat is on—pretty much across the nation. Temps topping 92 here in the Midwest. Which doesn’t seem like much to you folks on the East Coast, who’ve been frying at triple digits. And those of you in the South and the Southwest just live with this all the time.

And sometimes it seems like the A/C just isn’t cranking quite enough. So—can you plug in that good ol’ fan in patient care areas, laboratories, and other support areas?

Sure—you can. The Joint Commission standards don’t prohibit it. Fans can help keep patients comfortable—especially those with respiratory distress or post cardiac surgery.

But seriously. If you’re finding that you need to use fans, you ought to check out whether you’ve got a temperature control or ventilation problem. Because that could affect equipment, patient testing results, and overall patient care. Ventilation and temp control problems usually arise after you add equipment or change the space use without increasing the ventilation and/or the space size.

You’ll want to perform an assessment to determine the need for the fan. Consider risks pertinent to patient needs and the ventilation and/or temperature concerns for equipment, airborne particles/contamination that may affect patient care, cultures or equipment operation, and possible tripping hazard(s) created by cords.

Then everybody will be cool.