The Effect of Physical Environment on Operating Room Cleanliness: Review Study

Maintaining cleanliness in the environment of hospitals and medical spaces is of special importance, as it can reduce hospital infection and maintain and improve the health of patients and staff. Given the paucity of studies about the relationship of environmental features and physical spaces with the control of infections in medical settings, the present research aimed to study the cleanliness of operating rooms using physical features of the space and develop solutions for defining the operating room features considering the effects of these features on their cleanliness.

The present research was a systematic review which was conducted in 2017 through searching the keywords such as operating room, clean room, features of the physical environment, infection control, and hospital infection in ISI, PubMed, ScienceDirect, SID, CIVILICA, Irandoc, and Magiran scientific databases and the website of organizations such as World Health Organization (WHO), Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), American Institute of Architects (AIA), American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), and International Health Facility Guidelines (IHFG). Domestic and foreign articles published in the period of 2000-2016 in both Persian and English languages were considered. Findings: Factors such as the facilities for washing and hand sanitation, identification of the process and workflow, determination and separation of functional areas, air conditioning, and final materials used at different surfaces play a vital role in the cleanliness of operating rooms.

Environmental factors which affect the cleanliness of medical spaces are necessary to be taken into account from the beginning of the design process in order to reduce hospital infections.