Task force issues HVAC guidance for ORs, sterile processing departments

An HVAC task force, whose members include the AHA’s American Society for Healthcare Engineering, today issued interim guidance to help health care facilities maintain appropriate temperature and humidity control in operating rooms and sterile processing departments as it works to achieve consensus on conflicting standards. Among other actions, the task force said it plans to explain the conflicting standards to accreditors and state licensing agencies and ask them to work with health care organizations to establish a plan for resolving variance. In addition to ASHE, task force members include the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers; Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation; Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology; Association of periOperative Registered Nurses; and the Facility Guidelines Institute.