Design Method to Prevent Airborne Infection in an Emergency Department

Abstract

This study investigated design recommendations to reduce airborne infection risk in an emergency department by using airflow network simulation. The main design concepts include isolating the source of the airborne pathogen and increasing the ventilation rate. A conventional emergency department is selected as a base model, and influenza is selected as the airborne pathogen examined in the study. The Wells-Riley equation is used to model airborne infection risk in a zone. The simulation results indicate that airborne infection risk exists when a patient releases an influenza pathogen in the emergency department with a ventilation rate of 3 ACH according to the Korean building code. The findings reveal that isolating the airborne pathogen source and increasing the ventilation rate are good methods to prevent airborne infection risk. However, the isolation method can increase the infection risk in a zone with an airborne pathogen source. Thus, it is necessary to simultaneously increase the ventilation in a zone with an airborne pathogen source. Additionally, airborne infection risk continuously increases the cumulative exposure time, and it is desirable to increase the ventilation rate required for a zone based on the residing time of a patient releasing airborne pathogens in a target zone.