Minnesota Administrative Rules

4645.3200 VENTILATION.

Sterilizer rooms, sterilizer equipment chambers, bathrooms, hydrotherapy rooms, garbage storage, and can washing rooms shall be provided with forced or suitable exhaust ventilation to change the air at least once every six minutes. A similar ventilating system shall be provided for rooms lacking outside windows such as utility rooms, toilets, and bedpan rooms. Kitchens, morgues, and laundries which are located inside the hospital building shall be ventilated by exhaust systems which will discharge the air above the main roof or at least 50 feet from any window. The ventilation of these spaces shall comply with the state or local codes but if no code governs, the air in the work spaces shall be exhausted at least once every ten minutes with the greater part of the air being taken from the flat work ironer and ranges. All exhaust ducts shall be provided with control dampers. Summertime ventilation rate of laundry, in excess of equipment requirements, may be introduced through doors, windows, or louvers in laundry room walls and be exhausted by exhaust fans located in walls generally opposite from intakes or arranged to provide the best possible circulation within the room. Rooms used for the storage of inflammable material shall be ventilated in accordance with the requirements of the state fire marshal. The operating and delivery rooms shall be provided with a supply ventilating system with heaters and humidifiers which will change the air at least eight times per hour by supplying fresh filtered air humidified to reduce the electrostatic hazard. Humidifiers shall be capable of maintaining a minimum relative humidity of 55 percent at 75 degrees Fahrenheit temperature. No recirculation shall be permitted. The air shall be removed from these rooms by a forced system of exhaust. The sterilizing rooms adjoining these rooms shall be furnished with an exhaust ventilating system. The supply air to operating rooms may be exhausted from operating rooms to adjoining sterilizer or work rooms from where it shall be exhausted. Exhaust systems of ventilation shall be balanced with an approximately equal amount of supply air delivered directly into the rooms or areas being exhausted or to other spaces of the hospital such as corridors. All outdoor supply air shall be tempered and filtered. All outdoor air intake louvers shall be located in areas relatively free from dust, obnoxious fumes, and odors.

Statutory Authority:

MS s 144.55; 144.56

Published Electronically:

January 21, 2000