The relationship between sick building syndrome and environmental measurements in intensive care and operating room; a pilot study

Objective: Acute health problems and illnesses that a person in a certain building lives without a specific illness or cause are defined as Sick Building Syndrome (SBS). The purpose of this study is to investigate the complaints of volunteers working in the 3rd stage general intensive care unit and the operating room and the possible causes of these complaints. Method: Volunteers working in the tertiary intensive care unit (ICU) and in the operating room (OR) were taken into the study. Participants were asked to respond to a questionnaire. Building Symptom Index was calculated and compared in ICU and OR. The correlation between ambient measurements and employee complaints was examined. Results: Seventy six volunteers participated. Twenty-six participants (34.2%) were male. The most common complaints are fatigue and headache; the most common reasons for complaints were noise and heat. BSI=5.3±2 was found. In OR, eye witness-redness and nasal obstruction complaints were more common and BSI was found higher. Ocular complaints related to working in OR, sound and temperature, humidity, room volume per employee, air exchange rate and particle count. Conclusion: In hospitals, indoor physical conditions can affect health professionals' work efficiency and health in a bad way.