Lighting of hospital circulation spaces which are open to bed bays

Abstract

Surveys of lighting conditions in existing hospitals where bed bays are completely open to circulation areas and nurses' stations, or are only partially separated from them, showed an urgent need for guidance for improving lighting of the circulation areas. The problem is particularly important at night when patients, endeavouring to sleep, often have lighting equipment of undesirably high brightness used for corridor lighting in their field of view. Laboratory studies in a full-scale mock-up of a simulated corridor and an adjoining open bed bay have resulted in the development of lighting arrangements which minimize visual disconxfort or disturbance to patients in bed, while providing adequate lighting for staff to make their way down the corridor in safety especially at night. Proposals are made for lighting arrangements suitable for daytime, evening and night.