As a move toward a single consensus-based standard of care, a ventilation standard from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) has been incorporated into the “Guidelines for Design and Construction of Health Care Facilities,” copyrighted by the Facility Guidelines Institute and published by ASHE.

ANSI/ASHRAE/ASHE Standard 170-2008, Ventilation of Health Care Facilities, defines ventilation-system-design requirements that provide environmental control for comfort, as well as infection and odor control.

The inclusion of Standard 170 in the 2010 edition of the guidelines replaces much of the ventilation material previously included. This merger is intended to eliminate potential confusion by having two national ventilation standards for health care. The guidelines are used by more than 42 states and several federal agencies to regulate health-care-facility design and construction around the United States, meaning that in some states Standard 170 is likely to be adopted into code as part of the guidelines.