New scope for AIRAH’s Healthcare and Controlled Environment STG

AIRAH’s Healthcare and Controlled Environment Special Technical Group (STG) has refreshed its scope of work. We’re now accepting applications from healthcare HVAC&R professionals who are passionate about making improvements to standards and practices within the industry.

Until recently, the group was called the Infection Control and Operating Theatre Practices STG. While these topics remain a core of part of the group’s activities, the wider scope better reflects the sector we serve.  This allows us to address issues and advocate for AIRAH members across healthcare and other control environments.

Making healthcare safer

Healthcare facilities require high-quality indoor environments to function safely, effectively and achieve the high clinical standards that the people of Australia expect. 

Australia has around 165,000 healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) each year. HAIs are the most common complication affecting patients in hospitals.  

Safe, sustainable, healthy and economically viable hospitals are critical to the delivery of healthcare. 

Regulatory frameworks and technical requirements that support quality healthcare facilities vary substantially from state to state, but also between public and private facilities. State-based requirements form the majority of design criteria and expand substantially on minimum Australia’s standards, such as AS1668.2.

However, in most states these requirements do not apply to private facilities at all. This results in a fractured regulatory landscape for AIRAH members to navigate as they deliver healthcare projects across borders, in public and in private facilities.

The STG’s aims

The priority of the Healthcare and Controlled Environment STG is to provide AIRAH members with a platform for involvement in shaping the healthcare HVAC&R industry. 

This includes:

• Advocacy around important issues 
• Policy advice and regulation development 
• Development of industry guidance  
• Promoting good practice culture 
• Assisting partner bodies in developing unified advice
• Identifying and seeking funding for collaborative projects 

This platform promotes a whole-of-supply-chain integrated view on issues related to the activities of the STG and AIRAH, along with best-practice delivery in Australia and internationally. 

The STG aims to: 

1. Provide guidance to the HVAC&R industry to develop a considered, integrated, and technically objective approach to healthcare facilities. 
2. Serve as a reference point for government and industry bodies in shaping policy relating to the environmental, economic, and social impact of healthcare HVAC&R systems.
3. Where needed, create special interest groups led by industry knowledge champions. These will help to further the interests of the STG.  
4. Identify and seek external funding for collaborative projects that support its objectives and aims of AIRAH and its members. 

Below is a brief snapshot of some of the topics that the STG can now pursue with the wider scope remit. Each of these topics can benefit from renewed industry input that the STG will work to assist with over time.

• Infection control
• Pandemic preparedness 
• Controlled environments and labs 
• Indoor air quality (IAQ) 
• Smoke hazard management 
• Disaster management such as internal tenability through bushfires
• Sustainability
• Building management and controls. 

Not all topics can be addressed in the short term, and the STG intends to prioritise our works where we see the most need within the industry.

The volume of potential scope for the STG is large, varied and impactful to both the industry and community. The STG welcomes the challenge.

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