Singh Raja
Architecture, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, IND.
Cureus. 2022 Mar 16;14(3):e23211. doi: 10.7759/cureus.23211. eCollection 2022 Mar.
Background Hospital waiting areas are overlooked from the airborne infection control viewpoint as they are not classified as critical for infection control. This is the area where undiagnosed and potentially infected patients gather with susceptible and vulnerable patients, and there is no mechanism to segregate the two, especially when the potentially infected visitors/patients themselves are unaware of the infection or may be asymptomatic. It is important to know whether hospitals in Delhi, a populated, low-resource setting having community transmission/occurrence of airborne diseases such as tuberculosis, consider waiting areas as critical. Hence, this study aims to determine whether hospitals in Delhi consider waiting areas as critical areas from the airborne infection control viewpoint. Methodology The Right to Information Act, 2005, was used to request information from 11 hospitals included in this study. Results After compiling the results, it was found that five out of the 11 hospitals did not consider waiting areas as critical from the infection spread point of view. Two of the 11 hospitals acknowledged the criticality of waiting areas but did not include the same in the list of critical areas. Only three out of the 11 considered waiting areas as critical and included these in the list of critical areas in a hospital. Conclusions This study provided evidence that most hospitals in Delhi do not include waiting areas in the list of critical areas in a hospital.
从空气传播感染控制的角度来看，医院候诊区未受到重视，因为它们未被归类为感染控制的关键区域。在这个区域，未确诊和潜在感染的患者与易感和脆弱的患者聚集在一起，而且没有将两者分开的机制，特别是当潜在感染的访客/患者自身未意识到感染或可能无症状时。了解在德里这样一个人口密集、资源匮乏且存在社区传播/空气传播疾病（如结核病）的环境中，医院是否将候诊区视为关键区域很重要。因此，本研究旨在从空气传播感染控制的角度确定德里的医院是否将候诊区视为关键区域。方法：使用2005年的《信息权法》向本研究纳入的11家医院索取信息。结果：在汇总结果后发现，11家医院中有5家从感染传播的角度不认为候诊区是关键区域。11家医院中有2家承认候诊区很关键，但未将其列入关键区域清单。11家医院中只有3家认为候诊区是关键区域，并将其列入医院的关键区域清单。结论：本研究提供的证据表明，德里的大多数医院未将候诊区列入医院的关键区域清单。
