Creating a Baseline IAQ Profile for Critical Hospital Spaces

Indoor air quality (IAQ) can play a foundational role in infection prevention, patient outcomes, and staff well-being across healthcare settings. While hospitals routinely monitor air quality in response to construction activity, known contamination, or equipment failures, fewer have formalized programs to establish baseline IAQ profiles in their most sensitive areas.¹ Doing so provides a vital reference point for ongoing environmental control—and helps facility teams quickly identify when conditions drift from the norm.
A baseline IAQ profile captures key environmental parameters under “normal” operating conditions, documenting acceptable ranges for each. With these baselines in place, Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) teams, Infection Preventionists, and Facilities Engineers can more easily detect deviations, respond to early indicators of HVAC system strain, and validate safe conditions during inspections or commissioning.

Why Baseline IAQ Profiles Matter

In highly controlled spaces like operating rooms, oncology infusion bays, NICUs, and sterile storage areas, small changes in temperature, humidity, or CO₂ levels can signal bigger problems. A slow shift in relative humidity may precede mold growth. Slight increases in CO₂ could point to inadequate ventilation. Without a benchmark, these changes may go unnoticed until a critical threshold is crossed.

Establishing baseline profiles allows healthcare facilities to:

• Track changes over time and identify trends before they affect safety or compliance
• Validate conditions following upgrades or HVAC adjustments
• Provide documented proof of air quality for regulatory or accreditation reviews
• Support commissioning and post-occupancy evaluation of new spaces
• A comprehensive IAQ baseline helps bridge the gap between day-to-day operations and long-term risk mitigation

What Parameters to Measure

Although baseline parameters may vary slightly by clinical environment, most IAQ profiles include the following core measurements:

• Carbon dioxide (CO₂): Indicates occupancy levels and ventilation adequacy
• Temperature: Impacts patient comfort and pathogen viability
• Relative Humidity (RH): Crucial for controlling microbial growth and static electricity
• Barometric Pressure: Useful for interpreting pressure-related trends
• Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs): If applicable, to assess emissions from furnishings or cleaners
• Particulate Matter (PM): May be relevant in procedural or sterile environments

For most healthcare facilities, a profile that includes CO₂, temperature, and RH offers an ideal starting point. These are the most commonly regulated and frequently fluctuating values in indoor healthcare environments.

Choosing the Right Instrumentation

Accurate and repeatable measurement is key to building a reliable baseline. TSI offers two versatile tools that support IAQ profiling in hospital settings:

OmniTrak™ Solution

The OmniTrak™ Solution is a highly flexible platform for  indoor air quality monitoring tailored for healthcare settings. It features interchangeable sensor modules that allow measurement of multiple key IAQ parameters, including:

• Particulate Matter (PM)
• Carbon Dioxide (CO₂)
• Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)

A unique advantage of the OmniTrak™ Solution is its capability to collect data from several modules simultaneously, even when these modules are not physically attached to the smart station. This wireless modular setup lets hospitals customize their monitoring systems to specific environments, such as operating rooms, isolation units, or patient waiting areas. Furthermore, the OmniTrak™ Solution integrates seamlessly with TSI Link™ software, enabling remote data access, automated reporting, and real-time alerts. This connectivity supports efficient establishment and maintenance of IAQ baselines, critical for infection control and patient safety.

AirAssure™ IAQ Monitors

The AirAssure™ IAQ Monitors offer fixed, continuous air quality monitoring with a compact design ideal for sensitive healthcare areas. They measure important parameters such as:

• Particulate Matter (PM)
• Temperature
• Relative Humidity (RH)
• Carbon Dioxide (CO₂)
• Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
• Differential Pressure

Designed for discreet installation, AirAssure™ monitors help maintain a consistent, healthy indoor environment in critical spaces like neonatal units, ICUs, and infectious disease wards.
Like the OmniTrak™ Solution, AirAssure™ integrates with TSI Link™, providing healthcare teams with centralized monitoring, alerting, and reporting capabilities that streamline IAQ management and compliance.

Where and When to Establish Baselines

Baseline IAQ profiles are most valuable in areas where air quality has a direct effect on patient health, equipment performance, or regulatory compliance. These typically include:

• Operating rooms and surgical prep areas
• Intensive care units (ICUs and NICUs)
• Oncology clinics and infusion rooms
• Sterile storage and medication prep areas
• Compounding pharmacies (especially USP <797> and <800> spaces)²

To build a representative baseline, measurements should be taken:

• During normal daily operations (not unoccupied hours)
• Over a minimum of 24 hours, ideally extending to multiple days
• Across different times of day, to capture fluctuations due to HVAC cycling, occupancy, or outdoor air influence
• After HVAC filter changes, maintenance events, or room retrofits

Baseline values can then be averaged or expressed as a normal operating range (e.g., temperature 68–72°F (20-22°C), RH 40–55%). This documentation can be included in facility records and referenced when investigating complaints, anomalies, or pre-inspection questions.

Applying Baseline Profiles to Ongoing Monitoring

Once baseline IAQ profiles are established, they can serve as dynamic tools for operational management. Facilities staff can compare live readings from handheld monitors or building automation systems to baseline values, quickly identifying deviations that may point to ventilation faults, filter issues, or pressurization failures. Some facilities program alerts into their Building Management Systems (BMS) using these values. Others use handheld to perform periodic check-ins and validate ongoing conditions. In either case, having a reference profile supports faster, data-driven decisions - and creates a more resilient facility environment.
 

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Resources:
¹https://www.energy.gov/femp/articles/integrating-health-and-energy-efficiency-healthcare-facilities
²https://www.usp.org/compounding/general-chapter-797