Indoor air quality (IAQ) is a crucial and challenging issue in institutional and commercial facilities, but it is more critical in healthcare facilities than anywhere else, given the compromised health of many patients. For this reason, maintenance and engineering managers in these facilities make it a high priority to ensure their facilities; ventilation, air filtration, cleaning and mold remediation activities are as updated and efficient as possible. The critical nature of IAQ in healthcare is highlighted by the legal situation one hospital finds itself in.
Seattle Children’s Hospital will have to pay out $215,000 to three families over former child patients who were exposed to aspergillus mold in operating rooms during heart surgery, according to KIRO. The lawsuit filed in 2019 claims Seattle Children’s exposed patients to mold in operating rooms due to building maintenance negligence. That was after the hospital’s CEO had admitted that numerous patients had been sickened by aspergillus mold since 2001, seven of whom had died. Plaintiffs further allege that the hospital subjected their children to painful anti-fungal treatments as a result of the aspergillus exposures.
Seattle Children’s Hospital will have to pay out $215,000 to three families over former child patients who were exposed to aspergillus mold in operating rooms during heart surgery.
Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.
