The Role of Patients’ Psychological Comfort in Optimizing Indoor Healing Environments: A Case Study of the Indoor Environments of Recently Built Hospitals in Sulaimani City,Kurdistan,Iraq

Abstract

Objective:

This study investigates how patients and medical staff assess the physical environments of two recently built hospitals in Sulaimani City to understand the extent to which indoor environmental factors influence the creation of an optimal healing environment.

Background:

A contemporary healing environment may be recognized by the quality of an indoor environment in positively influencing patients’ psychological comfort and supporting their recovery.

Method:

Post-occupancy evaluations were conducted in Shar General Hospital and Faruk Medical City wards. A 43-item questionnaire was distributed to 312 patients, doctors, and nurses to gather their perspectives. In total, 175 valid questionnaires were retrieved.

Results:

The results show that the quality of the indoor environments met patients’ psychological needs and expectations, and as a result, they were generally satisfied with the indoor healing environments. The findings from the patient and medical staff surveys suggest three essential factors in creating a healing environment, which are (1) Interior appearance, (2) Privacy, and (3) Comfort and control. Significant negative correlations of some demographic characteristics, such as educational attainment and age, with patient satisfaction were observed.

Conclusions:

This study shows that exploring patients’ and medical staff’s experiences can reveal factors that positively influence patients’ satisfaction levels, which may vary depending on their sociocultural perspectives and personal characteristics. Additionally, the findings emphasize the role of the tested factors in increasing patients’ satisfaction levels, optimizing healing environments, and informing design decisions.

Keywords

evidence-based design healing environment psychological comfort interior design healthcare facilities POE wards correlation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abdullah

(2010). The effect of artistics taste on the modern interior element change: Case study of living spaces in Sulaimani modern houses (MSc thesis). University of Sulaimani, Iraq.

Abinama

Jafari

(2015). The impact of the design of hospitals on hospital hoteling: Healing process and medical tourism. Modern Applied Science, 9(12), 43–51.

Al-Doghaither

(2004). Inpatient satisfaction with physician services at king Khalid university hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, 10(3), 358–364.

Aloomary

(2008). The influencing factors on the architectural form: An analytical study of the architecture of the Kurdistan region of Iraq (MSc thesis). University of Sulaimani, Iraq.

Dellinger

(2010). Healing environments. In McCullough

C. S.

(Ed.), Evidence-based design for healthcare facilities (pp. 45–80). Edwards Brothers.

Devlin

Andrade

Carvalho

(2016). Qualities of inpatient hospital rooms: Patients’ perspectives. Health Environments Research & Design Journal, 9(3), 1–22. doi:10.1177/1937586715607052

DH Estates & Facilities. (2008, January 15). A staff and patient environment calibration toolkit (ASPECT): Summary, NHS, UK. Retrieved from http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_082087

Dilani

(2009). Psychosocially supportive design: A salutogenic approach to the design of the physical environment. In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Sustainable Healthy Buildings, Seoul, Korea, 6 February 2009, pp. 55–65.

Escobar

(2014). Evidence-based healthcare design: A theoretical approach to a Substance abuse treatment facility interior design (MSc thesis). Michigan State University.

10.

Farmahini Farahani

Shamsikhani

Sajadi Hezaveh

(2014). Patient satisfaction with nursing and medical care in hospitals affiliated to Arak University of medical sciences in 2009. Retrieved March 2015, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4332990/pdf/nms-03-14022.pdf

11.

Ghazali

Abbas

(2017). Pediatric wards: Healing environment assessment. Asian Journal of Environment–Behaviour Studies, 2(3), 77–87.

12.

Huisman

E. R.

Morales

van Hoof

Kort

H. S.

(2012). Healing environment: A review of the impact of physical environmental factors on users. Building and Environment, 58, 70–80.

13.

Jonas

B. W.

Chez

R. A

. (2004). Toward optimal healing environments in health care. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 10(1), S1–S6.

14.

Kanire

(2013). Social science research methodology: Concepts, methods and computer applications. GRIN Verlag.

15.

Locklear

(2012). Guidelines and considerations for biophilic interior design in healthcare environments (MSc thesis). University of Texas at Austin.

16.

MacAllister

Zimring

Ryherd

(2018). Exploring the relationships between patient room layout and patient satisfaction. Health Environments Research and Design Journal. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/1937586718782163

17.

Mawajdeh

Daabseh

Nasir

Al-Qutob

(2001). Patients’ expectations and satisfaction in different hospitals in Irbid, Jordan. Saudi Medical Journal, 22(7), 625–629.

18.

McLaughlan

(2018). Psychosocially supportive design: The case for greater attention to social space within the pediatric hospital. Health Environments Research & Design Journal, 11(2), 151–1625.

19.

Monti

Agostini

Dellabartola

Neri

Bozicevic

Pocecco

(2012). Pictorial intervention in a pediatric hospital environment: Effects on parental affective perception of the unit. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 32(3), 216–224.

20.

Mourshed

Zhao

(2012). Healthcare providers’ perception of design factors related to physical environments in hospitals. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 32(4), 362–370.

21.

Nightingale

(1893). Sick nursing and health nursing. The International Congress of Charities, Correction and Philanthropy.

22.

Ulrich

R. S.

(1984).View through a window may influence recovery. Science, 224(4647), 224–225.

23.

Ulrich

R. S.

(1991). Effects of interior design on wellness: Theory and recent scientific research. Journal of Health Care Interior Design, 3, 97–109.

24.

Ulrich

R. S.

Berry

L. L.

Quan

Parish

J. T.

(2010). A conceptual framework for the domain of evidence-based design. Health Environments Research & Design Journal, 4(1), 95–114.

25.

Ulrich

R. S.

Zimring

Zhu

DuBose

Seo

H. B.

Choi

Y. S.

Joseph

(2008). A review of the research literature on evidence-based healthcare design. Health Environments Research & Design Journal, 1(3), 61–125.

26.

Zhao

(2012). Evidence based design in healthcare: Integrating user perception in automated space layout (PhD thesis). University of Loughborough, England.

27.

Zhao

Mourshed

(2017). Patients’ perspectives on the design of hospital Outpatient areas. Building, 7(4), 2–13.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.05 MB

0.06 MB