KPac™ is our patent-pending software that was developed by Life Balance Technologies development partners. It allows healthcare leaders and business owners to easily identify and mitigate airborne infection risks. KPac also provides detailed analyses to support hospital compliance programs.
Recent history suggests that airborne infection risks will continue to threaten our health and the health of our loved ones. As a result, in June 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released emergency temporary standards that require healthcare employers to implement a COVID-19 plan that identifies and controls COVID-19 hazards in the workplace. So whether your healthcare facility is undergoing renovations, preparing for your annual infection control report, or seeking ways to reduce HAIs, Life Balance can help proactively identify health risks and compliance issues. Our reports cover 100% of a facility, compared to 15-20% for traditional reports.
SāfAir creates reports required for hospital accreditation. Hospitals are required to control infection by maintaining prescribed air balances and differential pressures. This software is an auditing solution to verify that the conditions meet existing standards. Criteria for accreditation may be set by ASHRAE or other state and municipal standards. SāfAir accommodates any local or national standard.
SāfAir reports are also used by hospital management teams to make critical decisions for patient care, HVAC maintenance and capital improvements. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, hospitals faced shortages in negative pressure rooms for the patients infected with coronavirus. We worked closely with the hospitals to increase the quantity of isolation and negative pressure rooms and improve the safety of frontline caretakers. SāfAir provides the calculations needed by hospitals to create safe isolation areas.
All hospitals must file periodic air balance reports to one of the accreditation agencies. Our reports are tailored for the accreditation process, including preventive maintenance, testing, balancing and monitoring. Our software and reports are a useful tool for any hospital’s engineering team to avoid deficiencies and requests for improvement.
Traditional air balance reports cover only critical rooms or areas, which represent less than 20% of the hospital space. Traditional air balance reports do not include all the envelope crossings. SāfAir allows a hospital to efficiently map and report ALL the infection control conditions of an entire facility. Having additional data provides more accurate and verifiable reports, which reduces the risk of significant deficiencies.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need to upgrade existing facilities. Many older hospitals will have to expand their testing and balancing to protect the staff and patients. Many hospitals will have to reconsider the impact of “energy efficient” building management, which reduces exhaust and increases returned or recycled air. Beyond hospital recommissioning, many school districts, universities, offices, and retail stores will have to consider the risk of airborne infections in their facilities. SāfAir provides the technology to model and report the building conditions to minimize the risk of infection.
We train qualified air balance service contractors to use SāfAir so they can prepare the information needed for compliance reports and operational decisions. Our goal is to work closely with building owners, tenants and contractors to provide superior service to provide air balance reports that save money and save lives.
KPac™ reports are comprehensive, accurate, and produced more efficiently than traditional testing and balancing procedures. The software is simple to implement and maintain, and reduces Testing and Balancing costs as well as compliance costs.
Life Balance creates an exhaustive database from the bottom up by integrating a building’s life safety drawings and mechanical drawings, and by incorporating ASHRAE and other local standards. Using a proprietary process of creating polygons for each room and attaching the unique features for each room and envelope, a client can quickly map an entire building in a fraction of the time allocated for traditional reports.
Using KPac, Life Balance technicians or the hospital’s air balance contractors can collect measurements of critical areas in virtual maps. Once the testing data is entered into the software, the algorithms provide immediate results showing whether a room passes or fails the required standards. This allows technicians to balance rooms quicker and eliminates time lags which can lead to an increased risk of airborne infection and increased costs.
Upon completion of the testing and balancing process, KPac generates an automated report, which includes a detailed result from each room as well as the whole building. The report can be customized for hospital engineers, project managers, contractors, and infection control officers, or for periodic compliance filings with the accreditation agencies. Accreditation agencies can use the results for their audits and inspections.
KPac is being deployed as a MVP (minimum viable product) for several of its existing customers. Using our MVP, we identified a number of design deficiencies or unnecessary changes in the engineering and construction plans for various healthcare facilities. As a result, our clients have saved millions of dollars in change orders and potential loss of revenue. We are working hard to expand our capabilities to serve additional customers, and we will provide updates in the development process. For more information about our development process or to schedule a consultation, contact us.
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