Testing, Testing, Testing....... reult : NEGATIVE

For this project we as a group decided to put our “This is Public Health” sticker on an empty negative pressure room at University Community Hospital in Tampa. Negative pressure rooms in hospitals are very important but they also play a big role in public health. One of the jobs of public health is to protect the community from infectious disease outbreaks. A negative pressure room helps hospitals combat infections and diseases.

Negative pressure rooms help combat the spread of anything that is communicable from the patient to anyone that comes into contact with them. These rooms are used for patients that have tuberculosis (TB) or other conditions that are spread through droplets (airborn). The negative pressure rooms are used for isolation to prevent contamination of the air and to protect the public. The rooms are specially designed to have a lower air pressure than the surrounding area. This prevents the air flowing from the ill patient’s room into the hallway, where family members, nurses, doctors and other hospital staff are. Science tells us that the air pressure will go from high to low so that equilibrium can be reached. However, these rooms don’t allow equilibrium to be reached because they are specially equipped with an air filter system that keeps the pressure constantly low. So the air from the hallway is always flowing into the room but the air from the room is not flowing back out.

It is important for hospitals to have such rooms because they help combat infectious disease outbreaks. These rooms not only help control the infection/illness, but they also protect the hospital employees. Just by changing the air pressure in the room employees and visitors are protected along with their families and communities. Could you imagine what would happen if someone that had TB came into the hospital? Every single person that visited that floor would be putting themselves at risk for getting TB. And could you imagine if a couple of individuals went home sick with TB? Before you know there would be an outbreak and everyone one would be getting sick. By using such rooms the hospital is taking a precautionary and preventive measure in not only protecting the public but its employees as well. That is why negative pressure rooms in hospitals are important to not only the hospitals but to public health as well, because they take preventive measures to protect the public from harmful illnesses.

Abby & Eban