Makeshift Negative Pressure Rooms

Southwest Healthcare System Plant Operations Team Invent First-of-Its-Kind

Makeshift Negative Pressure Rooms During COVID-19 Pandemic

Courtesy Southwest Healthcare Systems

Hospitals are filled with doctors and nurses helping those in need around the clock every day with a variety of health concerns. This past year during the pandemic, it was those on the front lines who captured the hearts and minds of people everywhere and deservedly so. Like those on the stage of a worldclass presentation, the results you witness can never become a reality without twice as many people assisting in the production of that presentation and hidden from plain site.

One of those critical needs departments of a hospital that rarely become the focal point or topic of discussion on the hero list is plant operations. So, what is plant operations, you ask? These are the men and women who make sure the physical facilities always keep running smoothly. We tend to take these items for granted until something stops working. Air conditioning, lighting, structural conditions, parking, water, the list goes on and on. Hospitals operate around the clock and so do those individuals in the plant operations department.

In 2020 one of the most prolific pandemics to hit our world in roughly 100 years, and the people around the globe, especially in healthcare, are placed on high alert. As the COVID-19 pandemic worked its way through communities and societies, the complexities and the unknowns became a weekly, if not daily, challenge. The biggest concern? If hospitals were to be overrun with patients, how could they sustain such care to those in need? Especially to those in need of isolation and negative pressure rooms to protect the patient and the healthcare workers. There is only a limited number of rooms designed with negative pressure features. So, what is a hospital to do if the demand for negative pressure rooms exceeds that of the supply?

Albert Einstein once said, “You can’t solve a problem on the same level that it was created. You have to rise above it to the next level.” This is exactly what the Plant Operations Team did at Southwest Healthcare System which operates Rancho Springs Medical Center in Murrieta and Inland Valley Medical Center in Wildomar. The team knew they had to rise above the challenges the pandemic created for the betterment of everyone involved.

Southwest Healthcare Hospitals needed additional negative pressure rooms to serve the high volume of COVID patients. Here enters the critical thinking and ingenuity of the Plant Operations Team. A pandemic brings to light the importance of HVAC systems within a hospital. Without them, it would be impossible to contain the spread of airborne infectious diseases. Makeshift negative pressure patient rooms allow for a hospital to properly care for and ensure the safety of their patients.

Southwest Healthcare System Plant Operations Team invented and produced the first-of-its-kind makeshift negative pressure room that set the standard for the healthcare world. The successful approach to this unique conversion was shared with 15 other hospitals in California.

The plant operations team converted many ICU and medical-surgical patient rooms to negative pressure rooms in an incredibly short amount of time. To provide ideal filtration, they utilized appliances such as the portable HEPA exhaust fan unit that would be located outside of the room. The team also eliminated the use of the existing return air duct system as the exhaust and setup a pressure monitor with a digital display and alarm for each negative pressure room. Rooms that were ideal for this conversion had full height walls or a solid ceiling to prevent any impact to adjacent rooms. And as a safety precaution, external exhaust would be situated at least 10 feet from any populated area or any type of intake that could return the exhaust air back into the hospital.

So, the next time you drive by or visit your local hospital, know that there’s so much more than what meets the eye. Through the overwhelming challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic brought to our world, our country, our community came heroes from all walks of life. Many of whom wore scrubs and lab coats and then others who wore utility belts and steel toed shoes, coming together as a united team for a cause that would refine them as individuals and define them in their careers.

From left: Alex Munoz, Plant Operations Director, John Napodano, HVAC Specialist, and Mike Bailey, Plant Operations Manager. Courtesy photos

Rancho Springs Medical Center HVAC units are used to produce the first-of-its-kind makeshift negative pressure rooms that set the standard for the healthcare world.