Development and application of an indoor environmental quality audit to hospital ward in the tropics

Hospitals are among the most complex indoor facilities with numerous end uses of spaces, functions and occupants. They require efficient HVAC systems to provide highly demanding indoor conditions from health and comfort perspective for both patients and medical personnel. Good Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is necessary, not only for promoting healthy indoor work environment, but also to help in prevention and treatment of diseases. This research attempts to investigate the IAQ in a hospital in the tropics. The study focuses on two places, namely, the Endoscopy Unit (EU) and Medical Day Care (MDC) wards of the hospital. The objective and subjective measurements were conducted to determine its indoor environmental quality and comfort level of the occupants. The results from the research found that the chemical contaminant levels in both places were below the threshold level. The average temperatures for EU and MDC wards were at 20.7ºC and 22.2ºC, respectively. For humidity level, the RH at 75% was recorded for the EU ward and RH at 71% was measured for the MDC ward. The results also indicated that the air velocity and particle counts were below the maximum limits. Based on the subjective measurement results, only 75% of the EU ward occupants and 56% of the MDC ward occupants were feeling comfort. The results strongly suggested that a further research on the adaptive thermal comfort model in hospitals in the tropics must be conducted