In healthcare, laboratory, and clean-construction environments, the need to isolate work zones while maintaining safe, uninterrupted operations is essential. Whether addressing infection control, facility renovations, or high-risk maintenance work, anterooms provide a proven method to contain contaminants and protect people and spaces.

What Is an Anteroom?

An anteroom is a small, enclosed space located between a contaminated or construction zone and a clean or occupied area. This transitional space serves as a buffer that helps maintain air quality, regulate pressure, and prevent dust, debris, and airborne pathogens from spreading into sensitive environments.

In practice, anterooms are used to create a physical and environmental separation. They allow workers to safely enter and exit work areas, don or remove personal protective equipment, and contain airflow to ensure compliance with safety and infection control protocols.

Why Anterooms Are Essential

Anterooms are widely used in hospitals, research labs, pharmaceutical facilities, and other settings where even minor contamination can cause serious consequences. Their benefits include:

• Airborne Contaminant Control
  Anterooms help contain dust, pathogens, and construction debris by serving as a sealed transition zone between work areas and occupied spaces. When used with a negative air machine, they can help maintain proper directional airflow.

• Pressure Regulation
  Anterooms enable the maintenance of negative or positive pressure environments, which is critical in healthcare and cleanroom applications. This helps prevent contaminated air from leaking into sterile zones.

• Safe PPE Transitions
  Staff can use the anteroom to put on or remove gloves, masks, gowns, and shoe covers, reducing the risk of cross-contamination.

• Operational Continuity
  Facilities can remain open and functional during renovations or emergency response events. Anterooms help confine work to a specific area without impacting nearby operations.

• ICRA Compliance
  For healthcare construction projects classified as ICRA Class IV, anterooms are often required to meet infection control guidelines.

Moving Beyond Plastic Sheeting

Traditional containment methods, such as plastic sheeting and wood framing, are labor-intensive, prone to air leaks, and visually unappealing in professional settings. These approaches can also create challenges for reusability, fire safety, and long-term maintenance.

Modern prefabricated anteroom systems offer a cleaner, faster, and more reliable alternative. They are designed for quick deployment, easy cleaning, and long-term use, making them ideal for both planned renovations and emergency containment needs.

Rapid Room by Imperial Privacy Systems

Rapid Room, developed by Imperial Privacy Systems, is a prefabricated anteroom solution designed for fast deployment and maximum performance in demanding environments. It offers a professional-grade containment system that supports infection control, clean construction, and regulatory compliance.

Key features of Rapid Room include:

• Fast, Tool-Free Setup
  Rapid Room can be assembled in minutes by two people, without the need for tools. This minimizes disruption to operations and reduces labor costs.

• HEPA-Ready Airflow Management
  The system includes a built-in duct collar for quick connection to a negative air machine, allowing for controlled airflow and pressure differential.

• Cleanable and Durable Panels
  Panels are impact-resistant and feature smooth surfaces that are easy to disinfect. This makes them ideal for hospital and laboratory settings where hygiene is critical.

• Fire Safety and Code Compliance
  The system meets common fire and building code standards and supports ICRA Class IV and V protocols when properly installed.

• Modular and Reusable Design
  Rapid Room can be easily relocated and reconfigured for future projects, providing strong long-term value for facility teams and contractors.

Common Applications for Anterooms

Anterooms are used across a wide range of industries and project types. Examples include:

• Renovating patient rooms, ICUs, or surgical suites

• Upgrading sterile processing or cleanroom environments

• Performing mechanical, electrical, or plumbing work in occupied healthcare facilities

• Responding to infectious disease outbreaks or emergency containment needs
  

With their compact footprint and rapid setup, anterooms are especially useful in projects where access is limited or space is constrained.

Supporting Safety and Efficiency

In environments where patient safety, infection control, or contamination risk are top priorities, anterooms are a critical tool. They help maintain operational continuity, reduce downtime, and support compliance with industry standards. Their presence also signals professionalism and attention to detail, both to regulatory bodies and the facility's staff and visitors.

Conclusion

Anterooms are no longer optional in modern facility construction and maintenance. They are a core part of any serious containment strategy, especially in healthcare and research environments. Prefabricated systems like Rapid Room by Imperial Privacy Systems allow professionals to deploy reliable, code-compliant containment quickly and confidently.

By improving air management, enhancing safety, and enabling continued operations during construction or emergency events, anterooms help facilities stay protected while work gets done.

Modern airports are more than transit points—they are complex ecosystems that combine transportation infrastructure with hospitality, retail, and public amenities. Keeping these environments operational during construction presents a unique challenge. Temporary modular wall systems offer a high-performance solution that supports phased renovation work while ensuring safety, efficiency, and aesthetic integrity.

Meeting the Demands of Modernization

As air travel continues to grow, so does the need for terminal upgrades, expansions, and reconfigurations. Many airports are operating beyond their original design capacity. Passenger traffic increases of five to eight percent annually are common, and many terminals must double their throughput within a decade. To accommodate this growth, operators are modernizing everything from gates and baggage systems to lounges and commercial spaces.

The pressure to upgrade is high, but complete shutdowns are rarely an option. Construction must proceed while terminals remain open and fully functional—a task that requires thoughtful containment strategies and strict adherence to safety and regulatory standards.

Strategic Containment in Active Terminals

Airport construction requires more than just scheduling around peak hours. It demands intelligent separation of work zones from public areas, clear control of pedestrian traffic, and consistent air quality. Travelers, airline staff, TSA personnel, and vendors all interact in confined spaces, making containment solutions a critical part of construction planning.

Temporary modular walls play a key role in maintaining safety and order. By creating defined boundaries between work and public zones, they help minimize disruption, guide foot traffic, and ensure that renovation work stays hidden and contained.

A Practical Tool for Construction Professionals

Professionals managing airport projects are increasingly turning to modular wall systems as part of their standard toolkit. These systems offer several technical and logistical benefits:

• Rapid installation and repositioning: Lightweight and tool-free assemblies reduce labor hours and increase responsiveness to project phasing.

• Dust and debris control: Airtight seals help maintain indoor air quality and protect sensitive operational areas.

• Acoustic performance: High-density cores can significantly reduce construction noise in passenger-facing spaces.

• Code compliance: Fire-rated panels and surfaces that meet Class A requirements help projects stay aligned with building and life safety codes.

• Durability: Panels are designed to endure contact from rolling luggage, equipment, and cleaning machinery.

• Reusable and sustainable: Modular systems can be relocated and reused across multiple projects, reducing waste and long-term costs.

Rapid Room: Built for Environments That Can’t Shut Down

Rapid Room from Imperial Privacy Systems is a high-performance modular wall system designed specifically for high-traffic, high-sensitivity environments like airports and hospitals. Engineered to meet healthcare-grade infection control standards, Rapid Room systems are well-suited for public-facing renovation work where safety, containment, and visual professionalism are paramount.

Architects and general contractors rely on Rapid Room walls during projects ranging from terminal expansions and flooring replacements to concessions overhauls and baggage system upgrades. The company’s products feature smooth, cleanable surfaces, built-in acoustic properties, and sleek aesthetics that blend into commercial environments.

Real-World Applications in Airport Environments

Modular wall systems have been successfully deployed in a wide range of airport renovation scenarios, including:

• Temporary walkways and rerouted pedestrian corridors

• Containment of mechanical upgrades, including HVAC and electrical rooms

• Isolation of baggage handling areas during system replacements

• Secure storage and staging of tools and materials

• Visual shielding of ongoing retail or concession construction

In many cases, these systems also serve as a canvas for branded signage, passenger communication, or terminal navigation.

A Long-Term Asset for Repetitive or Phased Work

Airports rarely complete renovations in a single phase. Projects are typically staged over several months or years. The reusability of modular wall systems allows teams to redeploy the same materials from one work zone to another, improving ROI and supporting continuous improvement programs.

From a project management standpoint, this flexibility reduces material handling, cuts down on clean-up and demolition costs, and enables faster transitions between construction phases—all without impacting daily operations.

Conclusion

Renovating an active airport requires more than just working behind the scenes. It requires strategic tools that allow construction to proceed without compromising the safety, comfort, or experience of travelers. Modular wall systems, like those produced by Imperial Privacy Systems, provide construction and design professionals with the flexibility, compliance, and containment capabilities needed to deliver high-quality outcomes in challenging environments.

As airports continue to evolve, the ability to build without interruption will remain essential. Modular containment is no longer an optional convenience—it is a core requirement for modern aviation infrastructure projects.

For contractors working in healthcare facilities, containment is a necessity. It protects patients, supports infection control, and ensures regulatory compliance. But what many contractors overlook is that the right containment system can also strengthen their bottom line.

While temporary construction walls are typically viewed as an expense, reusable ICRA-compliant barriers from Rapid Room can turn this part of your project into a long-term asset. With faster installation, lower labor costs, and the ability to reuse the same system across multiple jobs, Rapid Room helps contractors reduce waste and improve profitability.

Save Time with Faster Installation

Installing traditional containment using drywall is a time-consuming process. Crews must frame, hang, tape, mud, and sand the walls, which can stretch the installation across multiple days. Each additional hour spent on setup increases labor costs and extends project timelines.

Rapid Room simplifies this. Its modular panels are designed for rapid deployment, allowing teams to install full enclosures in a fraction of the time. One or two crew members can set up a clean, professional-looking barrier in under an hour with basic tools.

This faster setup means projects start sooner, complete faster, and require fewer labor hours—all of which contribute to a stronger return on each job.

Lower Costs with Fewer Trades

Drywall containment often requires specialized labor and coordination between trades. Demolition crews, finishers, painters, and cleaners may all need to be scheduled before and after the job, increasing labor costs and complexity.

In contrast, Rapid Room panels are easy to install, remove, and store without the need for skilled drywall installers or extensive clean-up. With a small crew, you can complete containment in a single mobilization. This reduces the number of subcontractors on-site and minimizes scheduling conflicts, resulting in smoother, more efficient projects.

Reuse That Pays for Itself

The most significant financial benefit of reusable containment is just that—it can be used again and again. While drywall must be demolished and discarded after each project, Rapid Room panels are built for repeated use. Many contractors recoup their initial investment within just a few deployments.

Over time, the cost per project drops significantly. What starts as an upfront capital expense quickly becomes a profit center as your team uses the same equipment across dozens of jobs without additional material costs.

Reduce Waste and Avoid Disposal Fees

Beyond the labor and material costs, drywall containment generates significant waste. Every project ends with demolition, cleanup, and hauling, adding environmental impact and disposal expenses.

Rapid Room helps you avoid this waste entirely. There is no demolition phase, and no materials are sent to the landfill. This not only supports your sustainability goals but also avoids tipping fees and post-project clean-up costs.

A Better Experience for Your Clients

In healthcare environments, perception matters. Loud, dusty setups made from wood and gypsum can disrupt daily operations and create a negative experience for staff and patients. Rapid Room panels provide a clean, quiet, and professional-looking barrier that supports infection control and minimizes noise.

This improves your reputation with clients and helps you stand out in a competitive market. A smoother, cleaner project is more likely to lead to repeat business and referrals.

Final Thoughts: Containment Can Be Profitable

Too often, temporary containment is treated as a sunk cost. But with Rapid Room, it becomes a smart investment. You spend less time setting up, reduce labor and material costs, and get more value from a system that pays for itself over time.

If you're ready to improve your margins while delivering safer, cleaner jobsites, Rapid Room is the solution built for your business.

Reach out to Rapid Room today to learn how our reusable ICRA systems can help you protect patients—and your profit.

Infection control is mission-critical during healthcare renovations. When construction takes place in active hospitals, clinics, or surgical centers, ICRA compliance is not just a guideline. It is a requirement.

While traditional drywall containment has long been the standard for temporary infection control, leading healthcare contractors are now moving to reusable ICRA barrier systems like Rapid Room™. The reason is simple: reusable barriers offer better performance, lower long-term costs, and faster installation.

Drywall is Disposable. The Costs Are Not.

Drywall may appear inexpensive at first glance. But when you consider the full picture, the hidden costs quickly become clear.

A typical drywall containment setup includes several costly elements:

• Installation often takes hours and requires taping, mudding, sanding, and sometimes painting.

• Labor costs are high, particularly when skilled workers are required.

• Clean-up and demolition create dust and debris that need to be properly handled.

• Once the project is complete, all materials are discarded and cannot be reused.

The total cost for a single drywall containment project can easily exceed budgeted costs. When a facility undergoes multiple renovations each year, drywall becomes a recurring and unsustainable expense.

The Rapid Room Advantage: Reusable, Reliable, Cost-Efficient

Rapid Room™ is a reusable, modular ICRA containment system designed for healthcare environments. It offers full compliance with ICRA Class IV standards and installs significantly faster than drywall. There is no dust, no demolition, and no waste.

Here is how Rapid Room provides long-term value:

• The initial investment is typically recouped within just two to three uses.

• Per-use cost drops with each project.

• Each unit can be reused across dozens of projects for many years.

• There is little to no material waste and no disposal cost at the end of the job.

Rapid Room is not just a better containment solution. It is a smarter financial decision for any facility planning ongoing renovations.

Faster Installs and Cleaner Worksites

Rapid Room installs in under an hour and forms a tight seal that supports negative air pressure. Compared to drywall, the benefits are clear:

• Faster installation means less disruption to patient care.

• The clean, dust-free setup helps maintain a safer environment.

• There is no need for plastic sheeting, zip walls, or excessive clean-up.

• Teardown is quick and does not damage surrounding surfaces.

When time and cleanliness are critical, Rapid Room provides a reliable solution.

Built for Healthcare, Proven to Perform

Rapid Room is purpose-built for the demands of healthcare construction. Contractors, facility managers, and infection prevention teams rely on it to:

• Protect patients and staff during active renovations.

• Maintain full ICRA compliance throughout the project.

• Reduce long-term containment costs.

• Improve project efficiency and minimize downtime.

Whether your project is large or small, Rapid Room gives you the tools to work effectively in sensitive clinical environments.

Stop Spending on Drywall You Will Throw Away

Drywall containment is no longer the most effective or economical choice. If your facility is still building, tearing down, and disposing of drywall for every renovation, you are spending more than you need to.

Reusable containment systems are now the industry standard. With Rapid Room, you make a one-time investment that delivers savings for years.

Contact us today to schedule a demo or request a quote.

The following white paper was provided by Arc-Com, a leading supplier of high performance textiles to Imperial Privacy Systems.

COMPARISON OF WASHABLE WOVEN, X-STATIC® & DISPOSABLE PRIVACY CURTAINS

There are many stakeholders that impact the standard of care in medical facilities and clinics: Medical staff, Environmental Services and Maintenance staff, Infectious Disease Control teams, Facility Design services and the financial operations of the respective institutions. Over the last few years, all of these stakeholders have been brought into the discussion around woven privacy curtains vs. disposables. The purpose of this White Paper is to explore the merits and economics of woven curtains, including those with X-Static antimicrobial protection, relative to those of disposables.

There are four privacy curtain options that these stakeholders are considering:
• Disposables with and without antimicrobials.
• Woven or Woven with X-Static antimicrobial protection technology.

Before we begin, what is the X-Static Technology and why is it unique? X-Static is the most effective and safest soft surface antimicrobial solution available today. X-Static has been extensively tested and validated in the most demanding applications and environments. X-Static fibers are manufactured with a permanently bonded layer of 99.9% pure metallic silver. X-Static is not nano-technology or a complex chemistry that can be washed out. It is just pure silver that has powerful antimicrobial properties that creates an ionic shield that permanently inhibits the growth of bacteria and fungi and protects the curtain and extends the life of the product. With any significant decision on privacy curtains, there are always many considerations. This
White Paper will explore several factors that are worth consideration:


Long-Term Performance

Woven, washable privacy curtains will last longer. When properly laundered in connection with the instructions (usually regular commercial laundering), fabric curtains will provide years of service. Woven curtains with the X-Static technology require minimal laundering as the surface is constantly “self-cleaning” against bacteria and fungi.

One of the issues healthcare systems have been facing with woven privacy curtains is the misallocation or loss of curtains as systems have gotten larger and many have outsourced laundering to common external facilities. While regular woven curtains should be laundered periodically, X-Static curtains can be spot cleaned for stains and laundered less frequently than regular wovens. Disposables must be changed more frequently, and the more change-outs, the more the lifetime usage cost increases.

Antimicrobial Technology

Both washable and disposable curtains can use antimicrobial treatment. However, surface treatments provide no assurances of efficacy or actual presence and recent movements to reduce chemistries, including nanotechnologies, limit the options available to healthcare institutions. X-Static is NOT a surface treatment or a chemistry and is irreversibly bound to a fiber which is woven into the privacy curtain. Seeing is believing. The permanent performance does not diminish with washing or passage of time and pure silver is NOT harmful to patients, or staff.

Décor and Aesthetics

Woven designs provide a warmer, more soothing, experience for the patient. Woven fabrics have a better feel (the “Hand”) and are generally visible on both sides of the curtain, by design. Many disposables offer generic, printed designs on only one side of the curtain. Disposables are usually film-coated paper without the vibrance of color or Hand.

Maintenance (Change-out)

Both types of curtains can employ snaps and or removable panels to enable more efficient change-out. The process of swapping panels for either regularly scheduled maintenance or to replace a soiled panel reduces the need for woven or disposable inventory. Panels also reduce the time and cost of change-outs by medical and maintenance staff. The advantage of wovens with the X-Static Technology is impactful here as no cleaning is really necessary unless the curtains are visibly dirty.

Sustainability and Environmental Impact

There are many factors to assess when considering our environment, but wovens have a clear advantage over disposables. Laundering does consume energy and water. Detergents and other cleaning chemistries are used to clean, but waste water can be treated, chemistries removed and water returned to the ground. Further, wovens can be recycled or upcycled to avoid landfills. Disposables are bio-waste and should be red-bagged, which unfortunately limits the recyclability of the disposables. Some systems do not treat disposables like bio-waste or recycle, and in those cases, disposables wind up in landfills, which given the number of curtains per healthcare system all over the world, and a normal and reasonable change-out schedule, will lead to massive landfill usage from disposables.

Initial and Recuring Operating Costs

While the upfront cost of disposables is less expensive than wovens, that is NOT the complete story! Healthcare institutions focused on reducing costs should consider the LIFETIME cost of usage, or the cost per curtain over the useful life, as well as the breakeven period (where usage costs are the same). Below are our assumptions for an illustrative analysis: 

Here are the calculations:



1. Results may vary from state to state.
2. We have assumed a loss factor, although with different institutions this may not be relevant. 

The cost of ownership is ~50% cheaper with the woven X-Static curtains over disposables on an annual basis. Further, the breakeven point (where costs are the same) is only ~2.5 years.

Appropriateness

In certain areas, where privacy curtains are changed multiple times per day due to soiling, disposables may be more practical. However, in places where curtains are only periodically changed, having the protection of an antimicrobial agent that is constantly working without complex chemistries, is a beneficial part of an effective infection prevention program.

Observations / Conclusion

• Assumptions can change the outcome of the analysis, but the lifetime savings of wovens with X-Static improves as the number of change-outs of disposables increases.
• Wovens without X-Static will be cheaper to deploy, but do not offer comparable efficacy or lifetime defense against microbials. Many healthcare institutions are trying to avoid additional chemistries, which makes regular wovens more susceptible to microbial impacts.
• Every healthcare system will have its own protocols for laundering and change-out, but what we include in this analysis are the minimum amount of change- outs to ensure patient safety.

X-Static wovens, coupled with an effective Infectious disease protocol, can help reduce the hospital acquired infections and improve the patient experience and standard of care.

Click here to download the original white paper.


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