Engineering Health: Protecting Healthcare Workers with Sustained Risk Reduction

If we accept that exposure to air contaminants is an occupational hazard in healthcare, then an important practical question becomes: Can we systematically reduce that exposure and associated risk without rebuilding hospitals?

Healthcare workers routinely experience risks arising from infectious aerosols, indoor air pollutants, and episodic events such as bushfire smoke. Conventional ventilation strategies rely heavily on high outdoor air intake to dilute contaminants; however, this approach can increase energy demand and may introduce external pollutants into clinical environments. There is a need for practical, scalable approaches that reduce inhalational exposure while maintaining operational resilience. This paper describes approaches and findings in four hospitals.