User-centred healing-oriented conditions in the design of hospital environments

Dovjak, Mateja (author), Shukuya, Masanori (author), Krainer, Aleš (author)

Design approaches towards energy efficient hospitals often result in a deteriorated indoor environmental quality, adverse health and comfort outcomes, and is a public health concern. This research presents an advanced approach to the design of a hospital environment based on a stimulative paradigm of healing to achieve not only healthy but also comforting conditions. A hospital room for severely burn patient was considered as one of the most demanding spaces. The healing environment was designed as a multi-levelled, dynamic process including the characteristics of users, building and systems. The developed integral user-centred cyber-physical system (UCCPS) was tested in a test room and compared to the conventional system. The thermodynamic responses of burn patients, health care worker and visitor were simulated by using modified human body exergy models. In a healing environment, UCCPS enables optimal thermal balance, individually regulated according to the user specifics. For burn patient it creates optimal healing-oriented conditions with the lowest possible human body exergy consumption (hbExC), lower metabolic thermal exergy, lower sweat exhalation, evaporation, lower radiation and convection. For healthcare workers and visitors, thermally comfortable conditions are attained with minimal hbExC and neutral thermal load on their bodies. The information on this is an aid in integral hospital design, especially for future extensive renovations and environmental health actions.

• Language: English
• Keywords: healing conditions, hospital environment, burnt patient, thermodynamic response, user-centred cyber-physical system
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FGG - Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering; ZF - Faculty of Health Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2018
• Number of pages: 28 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 15, iss. 10, art. 2140
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-105111
• UDC: 614:699.8
• ISSN on article: 1661-7827
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph15102140
• COBISS.SI-ID: 8537441
• Publication date in RUL: 26.10.2018

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: International journal of environmental research and public health
• Shortened title: Int. j. environ. res. public health
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 1661-7827
• COBISS.SI-ID: 1024430420

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 01.10.2018

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: zdravilno okolje, bolnišnično okolje, opeklinski bolnik, gradbeništvo, termodinamski odziv, UCCPS

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P2-0158
• Name: Gradbene konstrukcije in gradbena fizika