Environmental Assessment of Alexandria Medical Research Institute

The evaluation of the temperature and humidity in the different sites of the Medical Research Institute (MRI) revealed that, allover the year, the temperature ranged between 19 and 28 degrees Centigrade, while the humidity ranged between 67% and 90%. Ideally, temperature should be adjusted between 22 and 26°C, and relative humidity should be kept at 30% to 60%. The adequacy of ventilation depended on the location of the hospital unit. The cost-free wards, the kitchen, the laundry, the chemotherapy unit, and the surgery D ward had poor ventilation. Some of the hospital departments depended on air conditioning systems and others made use of natural ventilation. The light adequacy in the different departments and units depended on their site as regards exposure to the sunlight. Examples for units with poor natural lighting were the cost-free wards, the kitchen, the chemotherapy unit, and the bacteriological laboratory. Most of the units had to use artificial lighting during the daytime apart from the natural light to ensure adequate illumination. The assessment of cleanliness revealed that the areas that had the priority for good cleaning practices had the highest score for cleanliness. The patients in the operating theatre, cardiac care units and renal dialysis unit are more susceptible to infection than those in general wards. Cleaning was therefore of particular importance in these areas. Despite the use of vector control measures on both the hospital and unit levels, vectors were present in the hospital, e.g. mice, cockroaches, and houseflies. This may be due to the irregular use of pesticides and rat control measure. The quality of the laundry services was found inadequate and did not fulfill many of the laundry requirements. Color coding was not used in linen containers’ identification. Furthermore, there was complete dependence on natural drying, as the dryer was not working. There was also no bacterial evaluation for the laundry before and after washing. The present study concluded that the Medical Research Institute was mostly good in its environmental conditions, except for some defects in certain services