ASHRAE/ASHE Guideline 43

ASHRAE and the American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE), continue to work on the new Guideline 43, Operations Guideline for Ventilation of Health Care Facilities.

By introducing Guideline 43, ASHRAE and ASHE seek to render obsolete the long-standing practice of using HVAC design standards as operational practice standards and resolve discrepancies between what is allowable by design standards and what constitutes nominal HVAC performance. It encourages the optimization of HVAC systems and the resources they use through the application of a maintenance program in conjunction with the appropriate application of alternative equipment maintenance and reliability-centered maintenance practices.

The guideline, developed by ASHRAE in collaboration with ASHE, gives recommendations for the operation of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems that provide environmental control in health care facilities for the safety and comfort of facility occupants. Guideline 43 addresses health care HVAC systems as a comprehensive whole while also establishing a consistent standard for the maintenance and operation of these systems.

The scope of the new guideline is intended to apply to patient care areas, resident care areas and related support areas within health care facilities, and provides recommendations on acceptable temperature and humidity ranges, ventilation rates, operational parameters and preventive maintenance.

The Guideline 43 work group continues to address the comments from the 2nd Public Review and plan to finalize the comment responses by the end of July.