Preface
This is the third edition of CSA Z317.13, Infection control during construction, renovation, and maintenance of health care facilities. It supersedes the previous editions, published in 2007 under the same title, and in 2003 under the title Infection control during construction or renovation of health care facilities. It is part of a series of Standards related to health care facility engineering and sets forth preventive measures intended to protect patients, staff, and visitors from disease transmission and other health problems, such as allergic reactions, that can be produced by the construction, renovation, or maintenance of health care facilities.
The first edition of this Standard was based on Construction-related Nosocomial Infections in Patients in Health Care Facilities: Decreasing the Risk of Aspergillus, Legionella and Other Infections from the Division of Nosocomial and Occupational Infections, Bureau of Infectious Diseases, Centre for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Population and Public Health Branch, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
This edition includes the following significant changes from the previous edition:
• additional material on quality management;
• an expanded section on new construction;
• more detail on the role and makeup of MDTs;
• requirements for maintenance and monitoring of construction air handling units (CAHUs);
• a new annex on the sizing of CAHUs;
• precautions to take when construction takes place in proximity to an HCF (health care facility), but outside of its control;
• updated definitions; and
• updated information on water systems.
This Standard was prepared by the Subcommittee on Infection Control during Construction, Renovation, and Maintenance of Health Care Facilities, under the jurisdiction of the Technical Committee on Health Care Facility Engineering and Physical Plant and the Strategic Steering Committee on Health Care Technology, and has been formally approved by the Technical Committee.
This Standard has been approved as a National Standard of Canada by the Standards Council of Canada.
Scope
1.1
This Standard specifies precautionary and remedial measures, including quality system requirements, for preventing exposure to agents released or augmented because of actions undertaken during health care facility construction, renovation, maintenance, and repair work.
1.2
This Standard is intended to apply to the activities of the following individuals or groups in relation to any aspect of construction, renovation, maintenance, or repair of health care facilities:
a) commissioning teams;
b) constructors;
c) infection prevention and control personnel;
d) architects, engineers, and other design and construction consultants;
e) planning and project managers;
f) facility managers and maintenance managers;
g) environmental services staff;
h) health care staff;
i) occupational health and safety professionals; and
j) operation and maintenance staff.
1.3
This Standard has been developed for use during the project specification phase of construction, renovation, and maintenance and repair projects, and as a guideline for preventing and controlling fungal and bacterial infections during the implementation of such projects.
1.4
In CSA Standards, shall is used to express a requirement, i.e., a provision that the user is obliged to satisfy in order to comply with the standard; should is used to express a recommendation or that which is advised but not required; may is used to express an option or that which is permissible within the limits of the standard; and can is used to express possibility or capability.
Notes accompanying clauses do not include requirements or alternative requirements; the purpose of a note accompanying a clause is to separate from the text explanatory or informative material.
Notes to tables and figures are considered part of the table or figure and may be written as requirements.
Annexes are designated normative (mandatory) or informative (non-mandatory) to define their application.
