Expressnews
Chennai, November 2022: The 1st edition of ACREHEALTH 2022, a day-long national conference focusing on the latest trends, innovations, equipment & technologies in the Heating, Ventilation, and Air conditioning (HVAC) sector saw over 100 Tamil Nadu based hospitals participating with delegates from other hospitals pan India also attending. The one-day conference aims to impart knowledge and technical assistance to engineers from member hospitals to understand the latest technologies and innovations in the HVAC segment.
ACREHEALTH 2022 is jointly organized by The Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organizations (CAHO) and The Indian Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ISHRAE).
The conference had a series of panel discussions and expert talks from the HVAC industry focusing on energy efficiency, operational challenges & sensitizing engineers, and their role in designing and maintaining the HVAC systems in their hospitals. Another subject that was highlighted in detail was their role in patient safety.
“We chose Chennai to hold our first conference based on the theme: “Air for Care”. Chennai is hailed as the hub of medical tourism not only in India but across Asia and this conference we felt is the need of the hour for engineers in hospitals to understand the latest technologies. Furthermore, the “One Size Fits All” strategy for hospital engineers stands irrelevant today while designing and installing air conditioning and refrigeration systems. It is vital that each element of the HVAC system is to be well thought off, planned, and executed,” said Dr. Lallu Joseph, General secretary, CAHO, Associate GS and Quality Manager, CMC Vellore.
“It is a welcome step in the right direction. We have over 250 delegates from leading National hospitals such as Apollo Hospital, Rela Institute, Madurai Meenakshi Mission, and Fortis to name a few participating in this conference,” said Mr. Vishal Kapur, National Chair – Apex Advocacy, ISHRAE.
“We also launched a guidebook covering HVAC Design, Operation & Maintenance Protocol, Controls & Instrumentation, Testing & Balancing, Infection Controls as well as Fire & life safety in Healthcare Applications apart from various Standards and Codes. HVAC professionals, medical doctors, hospital planners, architects, fire and life safety, O & M and TAB professionals will all find it a useful document to refer to,”added Mr. Vishal Kapur.
The conference touched upon topics such as Air conditioning & Ventilation Options for Large, Standard & Resource Constrained Hospitals. A Panel Discussion on Challenges in Operation & Maintenance of HVAC systems and Design Control Strategies to ensure air conditioning parameters for OTs and critical areas.
