Lockport, NY – In early March of 2020, in anticipation of the growing pandemic and to meet the needs of the community, Niagara Hospice House converted four (4) of its ten (10) General Inpatient suites into negative pressure rooms with negative pressure anterooms. This initiative will provide optimal protection for all staff, visitors and facility patients. The negative pressure suites are designed to accommodate illnesses requiring isolation, specifically airborne contagions.    

   Negative pressure rooms use lower air pressure to allow outside air into the isolated environment, preventing internal air from exiting. This keeps harmful particles from leaving the space and reduces the chance of the particles spreading.

   Each suite has an anteroom at its entrance for clinical staff and one visitor at a time to put on personal protective equipment (PPE) before entering the patient’s room. An intercom system streamlines communication for the patients and clinical staff and will also help conserve PPE.

   “Adding these negative pressure rooms is an important new asset for Niagara Hospice House to prevent the spread of contagions that can potentially be present in a variety of patient situations,” said Janet M. Ligammari, RN, Director of Hospice Facility Services at Niagara Hospice House. “With these added layers of protection, we now have heightened capabilities to protect staff, patients and loved ones from being exposed to harmful particles in the room as well as others in the vicinity throughout Hospice House.” 

   The Niagara Hospice House medical staff features three physicians and a nurse practitioner who oversee the patients’ medical care. The state-of-the-art facility opened in June 2007 and has been a model for hospice facilities nationwide. It also has ten (10) hospice residential suites, and staff is available to quickly address patients’ medical and psychosocial needs.