Testing air permeability in isolation rooms.

Blanca Beato-Arribas, the Asset Performance Team leader at BSRIA, the ISO 9001-registered test, instruments, research, and consultancy organisation, describes her recent work testing the design of isolation rooms that allow the room to be optimally used for both infectious and immunocompromised patients. With pressure differentials the determining factor when controlling infection between an isolation suite and the rest of the hospital, she explains that air permeability levels within the suite should be as low as possible.