I. Project Overview

The clean operating department of Shatou Town Hospital, Nanhai City, comprises a total of 4 clean operating rooms, including 1 Class I operating room, 3 Class III operating rooms, and the corresponding clean corridors and auxiliary rooms.

II. Floor Plan Layout

Shatou Town Hospital in Nanhai City consists of 4 clean operating rooms and the corresponding clean corridors and auxiliary rooms. The internal floor plan layout and corridor arrangement of the clean operating department conform to the principles of short and direct functional flow and clear separation of clean and dirty areas.

The operating department is designed with a double-corridor arrangement: the inner corridor serves as the clean corridor, through which patients, medical staff, and clean supplies enter each operating room; the outer corridor serves as the dirty corridor, through which post-operative waste is collected and sent to the soiled utility room for processing. The clear separation of clean and dirty flows effectively prevents cross-infection.

Since the project has a relatively small number of operating rooms, the floor plan layout of this scheme is simple and smooth, with very clear flow directions for both clean and dirty items.

III. Air-Conditioning and Purification System

The purification system project of the clean operating department of Shatou Town Hospital in Nanhai City, Guangdong Province, employs a total of four Chaowei-type medical purification air handling units. Among them, the Class I operating room adopts the form of one unit per operating room, the Class II operating rooms adopt the form of three operating rooms sharing one unit, and the clean corridors and clean auxiliary rooms share one unit.

The air-conditioning system of this project adopts a secondary return air mode with a bypass arrangement, i.e., a bypass opening is provided above the cooling coil of the unit, and this portion of return air is not subjected to cooling or heating treatment. The system is equipped with an outdoor air pre-treatment unit to centrally treat the outdoor air of the system. Constant outdoor air distribution to each independent system is achieved through imported constant air volume (CAV) devices installed on the outdoor air pipes connecting each circulation unit. The CAV devices are fitted with electric actuators, allowing adjustment during normal use of the operating rooms and during on-duty periods, supplying outdoor air for normal use and outdoor air for maintaining positive indoor pressure during on-duty periods respectively. In view of the prolonged humid climate in South China, the outdoor air unit is equipped with a direct-cooling dehumidification and reheating unit, so as to better dehumidify the outdoor air and enable the over-dried outdoor air to absorb part of the indoor moisture gain. In this way, the circulation units supplying air to the rooms only recirculate air and need only perform simple temperature treatment. In addition, this air-conditioning system adopts centralized humidification of outdoor air, i.e., in winter all humidification is performed by the outdoor air unit, and the circulation units likewise only need to perform simple temperature treatment. Such a system arrangement makes the entire system simpler and more energy-efficient.

The functional sections of the purification air handling units for the operating rooms are configured as follows: fan section; air equalizing, primary and medium efficiency filtration section; and cooling coil, heating, and air outlet section.

In addition, to accommodate the characteristics of the operating room air-conditioning conditions and usage patterns, which differ from those of general civil air-conditioning, this project deliberately configured independent cooling and heating source units for the air-conditioning system of the clean operating department, using multiple air-cooled heat pump units to supply cooling and heating sources for the entire air-conditioning system of the clean operating department. Such a configuration not only ensures the quality of the cooling and heating source supply for the air-conditioning system of the clean operating department, but also ensures the independence and reliability of its operation.

A dedicated machine room is provided on the floor above the operating level for the installation of the operating room air handling units and other equipment. Locating the dedicated machine room above the operating rooms allows shorter system ductwork, lower resistance, energy-saving operation, and more convenient maintenance of the entire system.

The cooling and heating source supply of the system adopts a two-pipe mechanical circulation system, while humidification is performed centrally for the system using electrode humidifiers.

IV. Indoor Air Distribution

The clean operating rooms adopt an upward-supply, downward-return airflow pattern, in which Class I operating rooms adopt vertical laminar flow, while Class II and Class III operating rooms adopt turbulent flow according to their air change volume. The system installs a supply air plenum above the operating table in each operating room, with H14-grade HEPA filters arranged on both sides of the plenum as terminal supply air filters. After being filtered by the HEPA filters, the air is delivered into the plenum, then evenly discharged downward through the damping mesh beneath the plenum, and returns through return air outlets installed at the lower part around the operating room to the air handling unit for re-treatment. At the designed air change rate, air is continuously filtered and treated by the system, ensuring that the cleanliness inside the operating room exceeds the design requirements.

To exhaust the disinfectant gases, anesthetic gases and unpleasant odors accumulated in the operating rooms, each operating room is equipped with an independent clean exhaust system, with the exhaust outlet located at the top on the patient's head side in the operating room.

V. Operating Department Drawings

The plan view of the clean operating room is shown in Figure 1; the plan view, zoning diagram and flow diagram of the clean operating department are shown in Figures 2, 3 and 4.

Figure 1　Overall Plan of the Clean Operating Room of Shatou Town Hospital, Nanhai City Figure 2　Floor Plan of the Clean Operating Department of Shatou Town Hospital, Nanhai City

  • Soiled Corridor

  • Up　Down

  • Class I　39.63m²

  • Class III　31.55m²

  • Air Shower

  • Pharmacy Room　Disposable Items

  • Aseptic Room

  • Scrubbing

  • Emergency Disinfection Room

  • Anesthesia Preparation

  • Clean Corridor

  • Class III　35.22m²

  • Class III　35.22m²

  • Soiled Corridor Figure 3 Zoning diagram of the clean operating department of Shatou Town Hospital, Nanhai City

  • Soiled corridor

  • Patient entrance

  • Medical staff entrance

  • Air shower room

  • Pharmacy　Disposable items

  • Sterile room

  • Clean corridor

  • Anesthesia preparation

  • Emergency disinfection room

  • Class Ⅰ 39.63m²

  • Class Ⅲ 31.55m²

  • Class Ⅲ 35.22m²

  • Class Ⅲ 35.22m²

  • Legend: Class Ⅰ operating room　Class Ⅲ operating room　Class Ⅲ auxiliary room　Unfilled　Non-clean area Figure 4 Flow Chart of the Clean Operating Department of Shatou Town Hospital, Nanhai City