The concentration levels of airborne bacteria were measured in clinical/hospital rooms in Upper Silesia, Poland, in buildings of varying conditions. It was found that the typical level of bacterial aerosol concentration is about 10 3 CFUm -3 in clinical outpatient rooms and ranges from 10 2 CFUm -3 to 10 3 CFUm -3 in hospitals, depending on the number of occupants and physical quality of the bu...

The use of laminar airflow rooms and a life island unit for comprised patients was evaluated. Six patients spent a total of 170 days in the laminar airflow rooms and 112 days in the life island unit, and none acquired any exogenous infection. Patients were febrile for 7 out of 170 days (4.1%) in the laminar airflow rooms and 4 out of 112 days (3.6%) in the life island unit. No significant diffe...

Design of the physical environment is increasingly recognized as an important aid in caring for people with dementia. This article reviews the empirical research on design and dementia, including research concerning facility planning (relocation, respite and day care, special care units, group size), research on environmental attributes (noninstitutional character, sensory stimulation, lighting...

We study a class of pedestrian evacuation process in rooms without visibility by analytical and simulative methods. First, the moving distance of pedestrians for leaving the rooms is analyzed using the mean and variance theory. A microscopic pedestrian model is then extended to simulate pedestrian evacuation in the rooms. By numerical examples, the distributions of single individual’s evacuatio...

Introduction: According to WHO, patient safety is the prevention of errors and adverse effects to patients associated with health care. There is a significant impact of physical environment on health and patient safety. Identifying and eliminating built environment conditions that negatively impact patient safety during various phases of construction of healthcare facilities is a strong need of...

This paper introduces the concept of Adaptive Rooms, which are virtual environments able to dynamically adapt to users’ needs, including ‘physical’ and cognitive workflow requirements, number of users, differing cognitive abilities and skills. Adaptive rooms are collections of virtual objects, many of them self-transforming objects, housed in an architecturally active room with information spac...

BACKGROUND Airborne microorganisms within the hospital environment can potentially cause infection in susceptible patients. The objectives of this study were to identify, quantify, and determine the nosocomial potential of common airborne microorganisms present within a small animal teaching hospital. METHODS Bioaerosol sampling was done initially in all 11 rooms and, subsequently, weekly sam...

OBJECTIVE. To determine the effectiveness of an automated ultraviolet-C (UV-C) emitter against vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), Clostridium difficile, and Acinetobacter spp. in patient rooms. DESIGN. Prospective cohort study. SETTING. Two tertiary care hospitals. PARTICIPANTS. Convenience sample of 39 patient rooms from which a patient infected or colonized with 1 of the 3 targeted patho...