3205 - Hospital Clean up After Wildfire Smoke Contamination

Session Description: A Colorado hospital was surrounded by the most destructive wildfire in the state’s history. The hospital was evacuated and remained closed for almost three weeks to remediate the damage to safely reopen for patient care. The hospital was entirely contaminated by smoke and the city was unable to provide potable water for a time. The presentation will discuss the impacted systems, describe the strategy the hospital took to solve the issues, and methods the hospital used to assure resolution and safety to restart patient care.

The presentation will discuss the approaches the hospital took to clean the air handling system, the water system, equipment, supplies and the physical space. It will discuss the considerations and limitations used to determine the approach taken for each area. An example of the content that will be presented for a system: air quality was initially assessed by air particulate counter data following the fire. The process to restart the air handling units included cleaning the interior of the unit and changing filters. Further, there were approximately two hundred machines with high-efficiency particulate absorbing filters laid around the hospital. The efficacy of machines was verified by air particulate monitoring. A comprehensive air particulate monitoring plan was developed to be able to determine when the air quality had returned to a safe state. The process will be described for other hospital systems that were impacted.