Private Hospital Room Danger

[Val]

After I got out of the ICU I was moved to a private room in the hospital. My room was marked as an "isolation room". This is a room built for protecting the hospital from patients that have infectious diseases mainly TB. The problem with such a room is that it is kept at a lower pressure than the rest of the hospital, meaning that when the door of the room is opened it sucks air. I requested and received a different room though the hospital staff could not understand why. This is a problem in hospitals across the nation, they use isolation rooms as regular rooms.

This is how to recognize a isolation room, beside the posted sign. There will be a tube over the door of the room containing a ball. When the door is closed the ball will come into the room side of the tube, showing that the room is operating at negative pressure. If you are placed in such a room, you should request another room. Until you are transferred from the room, keep the door shut. This will help some, but most door are not well sealed.

I only know about this because my husband was involved in a study regarding the misuse of isolation rooms. This happens in hospitals across the country and this is a dangerous room to stay in.

Val

 

[aviator67]

You are your own best advocate! Good job and thanks for the information.

 

[Jkm7]

Very interesting and particularly that the staff 'did not understand' why you wished to be moved.
How is it they did not know of this misuse of isolation rooms? Or did they know and choose to not confirm?

 

[ski girl]

Why are these rooms dangerous?

 

[aviator67]

Why are these rooms dangerous?

I presume that since air will flow freely from the hallways and other patient rooms into the isolation room, you will be exposed to more than you would if not staying in one of these rooms.



When I was in ICU last week, I noticed others in these rooms and thought that they were 'special' and had the better rooms. I think that most people would presume the same having not thought about it.

 

[ski girl]

Hmmm. Isolation rooms tend to have their doors closed all the time (unless being opened to let someone in/out), whereas others are open, thus allowing free movement of air on a continuous basis.

And you're exposed to whatever is floating around the ward anyway when you go for your many-times-a-day walkies.

I'm still not sure I understand why anyone would consider these rooms more dangerous - is there any scientific evidence that in the process of opening the door to a negative-pressure room, the patient is exposed to more nasties than if they were in a 'normal' room?

 

[Heather Anne]

I'm confused, too. I saw a couple of those rooms on my floor as well, and assumed that the patients inside either had fragile immune systems or a highly contagious disease. Would such a room be dangerous if you kept the door open all the time?

 

[pellicle]

I thought they were slitly positive pressure...

 

[ski girl]

I thought they were slitly positive pressure...

Either way, they suck.

HA HA HA Good joke eh?

 

[pellicle]

Either way, they suck.

err ... Well I was suggesting they blow ...

HA HA HA Good joke eh?

:: facepalm ::

 

[Val]

They are definite more dangerous if you keep the door opened all the tim. This is a known danger that many hospitals are not aware of or choose to ignore. As I said, your best defense, until you can get another room, is to keep the door closed.

This is from Wikipedia " Negative room pressure is an isolation technique used in hospitals and medical centers to prevent cross-contaminations from room to room.[1][2] It includes a ventilation system that generates negative pressure to allow air to flow into the isolation room but not escape from the room, as air will naturally flow from areas with higher pressure to areas with lower pressure, thereby preventing contaminated air from escaping the room. This technique is used to isolate patients with airborne contagious diseases such as tuberculosis, measles, or chickenpox"

If you want to know if you are in a negative pressure room, look for the tube with the ball over the door. If you close the door and the ball comes on the room side then it is a negatively pressured room and not a place for a surgical patient.

 

[ski girl]

Val I understand how the room works, I'm just asking why you think they're dangerous. And especially if there is any evidence for you saying they are dangerous, even with the door open.

Many people going in for OHS are terrified enough, they don't need more things to be scared of particularly things that there is no evidence for.

 

[pellicle]

They are definite more dangerous if you keep the door opened all the tim.

Why?

I would expect they clean the rooms, could you explain the nature of the problem as you see it?

The curtains are a better source of hospital acquired infection

 

[Val]

The room should be clean. I would not be worried about contamination from a previous occupant in a good hospital.

The problem is that this room sucks in air from the hallway and other rooms in the hospital. Think of it as having a fan in the doorway of your room blowing into your room. This room maintains negative pressure by venting to the outdoors with exhaust fans. This exhaust air is filtered to protect the outdoors from this room. The purpose of this room is not to protect the occupant but to protect the hospital from the occupant. These rooms were primarily built for Tuberculosis patients. With the door closed you should be able to feel air coming in from underneath the door. The ball in the tube over the door should be red.

There are positively pressured rooms that are for people with compromised immune systems. These will have a tube over the door with a green ball. When the door is closed, the ball will travel to the tube end towards the outside of the room proving positive pressure. This room uses positive pressure to keep the air from the hospital out of this room and brings in filtered air from outside the hospital.

 

[Val]

Leaving the door opened is the worst case scenario, this room is sealed to make sure that all the air entering the room comes from the rest of the hospital. This means anything airborne passing in the hall outside the room will be sucked inside. Even with the door closed there should be a 1 inch gap under the door because this room gets it return air from inside the hospital.

The chances of being assigned to a negative pressure in the hospital is not high. It would be a private room and not in the ICU. Look for the sign saying isolation room, and the tube with red ball. Most nurses and hospital administrators do not understand isolation rooms, so they are used on a regular basis as general purpose rooms. I don't want to scare anyone, but this is an easy danger to avoid in a hospital.

 

[marc_kowal]

I'd be surprised if there wasn't a HEPA filter system in place for the air going in and out of isolation rooms.

 

[nightingale]

I would think it was better to have a room that vents to the outside rather than circulating the same air as the rest of the hospital.

 

[Eva]

......................

I'm still not sure I understand why anyone would consider these rooms more dangerous - is there any scientific evidence that in the process of opening the door to a negative-pressure room, the patient is exposed to more nasties than if they were in a 'normal' room?

Ski girl,

Like you, I was confused by this too. Yet, I cannot imagine that the Hospital staff or the doctor in charge of that ward, nor the surgeon I trusted on my heart could be so ignorant to approve endangering his patient's health, if these rooms could be of any danger!

I presume that the hospital uses the isolation room for 'normal' patients (patients who do not have a contagious disease nor whose immune system is at risk) when there is shortage of ICUs, in which case I believe that it is better if the door is kept open, unless the pressure can be altered according to the patient's condition and thus the room becomes like any other ICU.

....... I saw a couple of those rooms on my floor as well, and assumed that the patients inside either had fragile immune systems or a highly contagious disease. Would such a room be dangerous if you kept the door open all the time?

Heather Anne,

Your assumption is correct! the door SHOULD BE CLOSED ALL THE TIME to protect the patient inside and those outside that room when the room is occupied by patients with fragile immune system or have a contagious disease.

Val I understand how the room works, I'm just asking why you think they're dangerous. And especially if there is any evidence for you saying they are dangerous, even with the door open.

Many people going in for OHS are terrified enough, they don't need more things to be scared of particularly things that there is no evidence for.

Again, I totally agree!

Val,

I'm glad you took the action you deemed necessary and helped you calm down your fears and anxieties which no one needs after such a surgery!

I presume the room was reconditioned to be used as a regular room, and that could be why the staff could not understand why you wanted to move to another room?! Just my 2-cents thoughts!

Wouldn't the hospital be worried about being sued?! Patients these days are better educated, and lawyers are ready to take any case!

It will help us (or me and some others) and give us peace of mind if you could share with us your husband's findings?! And What was the abuse related to?

Stay well

I encourage anyone worried about the possibility of being moved to an isolation room after their surgery to ask his surgeon in advance about it.

 

[catwoman]

I've always asked that my hospital room door be kept closed. Keeps down noise (have heard too many antics from the nighttime staff -- almost wrote "graveyard staff") at night.
I have never stayed in an isolation room. However, my dad was in something similar for several days at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas in March. It had a little antechamber between the room and the hall, with several warnings to keep the doors shut when not entering/exiting the room.

 

[DanielB]

I was in an isolation room after my AVR and actually liked it. I don't recall there being any negative pressure flow when I opened the door, but maybe because the room had a small outer room between it and the hall (as catwoman describes above). What made it so nice was that I had the quietest room on the floor. The nurses also stored the temp/BP machines in that anteroom, so I got looked in on (though the window) a lot amking it easy to get simple requests taken care of (I hated using the call button unless it was urgent). I can't sleep with noises around me, especially talking, so that part was heaven to me. My surgeons and cardio were fine with it, so I was as well. I have been in other rooms since that stay that were open to the hall and felt much more exposed, getting little rest. The important thing I guess is that while recovering a person is comfortable and, if that type of rooms is a concern, moving makes sense.