CONSULTING & ANALYTICAL SERVICES

Legionella Analysis & Risk Assessment

Doctors and hospitals are increasing their vigilance for occurrences of Legionnaire’s disease. With this increased vigilance, facility managers in both health care and non-health care settings are increasingly facing the question of whether to conduct environmental surveillance for Legionella in cooling towers and domestic hot water systems.

The decision to conduct environmental surveillance should not be made without first performing a risk assessment to determine the sampling strategy and focus resources on the high-risk areas. The risk assessment also determines the short and long-term control measures to be implemented in the event that Legionella is detected or an occurrence of facility-associated Legionnaires’ disease is suspected. With proper planning, appropriate and expedient response actions can be taken.