An Annual Check of the Thermostats in a Hospital

Conducting an annual review of thermostats in a hospital is both a financial and safety measure for hospital management. It is also important for clinical reasons: in some areas of the hospital, the temperatures must stay within given parameters for disease control purposes.

Significance

• There is major safety significance for monitoring thermostats: From a clinical standpoint, clinicians and their administrative teams need assurance the temperature of some rooms, such as operating rooms, is accurate on the thermostat. Operating rooms and some procedure rooms, as well as areas of the pharmacy, rely on specific temperatures for the safety of patients.

Benefits

• There are many benefits to reviewing hospital thermostats annually. If a thermostat is over performing and costing the hospital money, this is a wasted resource. Hospitals often have limited budgets, particularly publicly funded hospitals, and every dollar is essential.

Considerations

• Implementing an annual review of thermostats through hospital committees is one way of ensuring the task is completed on time. This task could be placed on the to-do list of committees in the Clinical Standards, Occupational Health and Safety and Financial Audit committees. Placing this task on the activity list for a variety of committees is important: the annual review of hospital thermostats has implications for different areas of the hospital.