HEPA FILTERS IN HEALTHCARE

Air quality is important all the time, but in healthcare settings such as hospitals, surgical centers, and health clinics, air quality is essential. Patients with weakened immune systems, exposed wounds, and complicated health conditions require air free of viruses, allergens, bacteria, dust, and other foreign particles. In these settings, air quality can be a life-or-death matter. So, in addition to the HEPA filters for their ventilation systems, floor scrubbers and scrubber dryers used in healthcare settings must also be fitted with HEPA filters to maintain optimal indoor air quality for patient health.

HEPA stands for High-Efficiency Particulate Air and it is the recognized efficiency standard for air filters worldwide.

A HEPA filter comes as a pleated mat of thick, densely woven, randomly arranged fibers. It creates a mechanical, physical barrier that prevents particulate matter from going through it while still allowing fresh air to flow to the other side.

The technical material and arrangement of pleats capture 99.97% to 99.99% of airborne particulates equal to or larger than 0.3 microns. In fact, a quality HEPA filter can often capture even smaller airborne particles as well.

When installed within a scrubber dryer used to clean floors in a healthcare setting, a HEPA filter can remove very fine dust, soot, hairs, allergens, and other microscopic particulates, significantly improving indoor air quality.

HEPA filters in IPC floor scrubbers physically capture airborne contaminants in three steps:

1. Diffusion—First, as the scrubber dryer suctions air through the filter, particles collide with each other, which prevents them from going through the filter.
2. Interception—As air moves through the HEPA filter, particles get caught in the dense, randomly arranged filter fibers, preventing them from going any further.
3. Impaction—The ongoing suction of air through the filter further embeds the particles within the filter fibers, so they cannot escape back into the air.

HEPA filters are also resistant to overheating as the filters and tubes have been tested and perform well even up to 200 °C.

Scrubber dryers fitted with HEPA filters vastly improve air quality in hospitals, medical centers, and other healthcare settings. These facilities must keep the air and their equipment hygienic and sterile to prevent the spread of contamination and protect patients whose immune systems may be compromised. Hospital laboratories and testing centers also require clean air to ensure that important medical test results are accurate. Pure air can also help prevent allergic reactions in patients, improving their comfort and prognoses.

IPC produces gold-standard floor scrubber dryer systems that include HEPA filters that can help healthcare janitorial staff create optimal conditions for patient health and recovery. The current range of scrubber driers machines with HEPA filter is given by: CT15, CT30, CT45, CT51, CT71.

• CT15: The small footprint of the walk-behind CT15 floor scrubber dryer is ideal for sanitizing floors in small, confined spaces such as treatment rooms and patients’ quarters. Its antibacterial plastic prevents contamination from spreading, and the HEPA filter improves air quality in these small spaces.
• CT51: This larger industrial floor scrubber dryer, the CT51 is a walk-behind model that cleans larger spaces and can go for 3.5 hours before the lithium-ion batteries require recharging. Like the CT15, its recovery tank and solution tank can be treated with an antibacterial plastic coating.
• CT71: With even more features empowering hospital janitorial teams to sanitize floors effectively, the CT71 walk-behind floor scrubbers efficiently remove contaminants from the floor and the air, also going for 3.5 hours before needing to be recharged. The same antibacterial plastic coating helps prevent the spread of infection via the recovery tank.

IPC Worldwide develops specialized floor cleaning equipment with HEPA filters, especially for use in hospitals and medical facilities worldwide. Please visit the dedicated page and contact us to discuss your needs: we can find a solution that helps improve both floor cleanliness and air quality in your healthcare setting.