[A project to improve psychiatric nursing station air quality]

Background: Ambient air at the psychiatric nursing station in our hospital had been notably poor for an extensive period of time. CO2 levels at the station averaged 1211 ppm during August, 2009 and a specialist team estimated a CO2 abnormality ratio of 32%. Analysis identified key issues in three problem areas, including (1) ENVIRONMENT: air at the station was not refreshed and electronic equipment was in constant operation; (2) Staff: the station had a high staff-to-space ratio and staffs lacked practical knowledge on indoor air quality maintenance; and (3) Policy: the hospital had no guidelines addressing indoor air quality maintenance.

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to reduce ambient CO2 levels at the hospital's acute psychiatric ward in order to create a high-quality working environment for all staff. The short-term goal was to reduce the CO2 abnormality ratio from 32% to 10%. Long-term goals were to maintain an ambient CO2 level in the ward below 1000ppm and further reduce the abnormality ratio to 0%.

Methods: To address environment-related issues, we increased the number of indoor plants and turned certain computers off at night. To address staff-related issues, we rearranged staff activity space and educated staff on how to maintain indoor air quality. To address the policy-related issue, we drafted proposed hospital guidelines on indoor air quality maintenance.

Results: Post-intervention measurements made in October, 2011 found significantly improved ambient air quality, with CO2 levels at 997ppm and a CO2 abnormality ratio of 0%.

Conclusions: Results demonstrate that improvement measures implemented can effectively improve the quality of ambient air at psychiatric nursing stations. A post-intervention survey further found that staffs were both more satisfied with ward air quality and perceived a friendlier ward work environment.