Patient's satisfaction of indoor environmental quality in hospital wards in Jos, Nigeria

Abstract

The main purpose of a hospital building is for the provision of an environment that is appealing to users and also encourage the healing process of patients. Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) parameters are viewed as one of the essential elements affecting a building occupant’s assessment of the building quality and performance. The IEQ of a hospital ward should therefore be such that it contributes to improve patients’ health and wellbeing, and patients’ satisfaction with the ward building. The main aim of this study is to investigate the impact of indoor environment on patients’ satisfaction in hospital wards and on their health outcome. The study was carried out at two public hospital in Jos, Nigeria. One of the case study hospitals has ward buildings with Northeast–Southwest orientation and closed-plan configuration, while the second hospital ward buildings orientation faced the Northwest–Southeast axis, with an opened-plan design configuration. This study consists of two parts. The first part involved the field physical measurement of IEQ parameters in the context of hospital wards orientation and design configuration. The physically measured data variables consist of air temperature, relative humidity, background noise level, amount of light intensity, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide concentration. The second part of this study was carried out with a survey instrument designed to evaluate patient’s satisfaction with and perception of IEQ parameters in hospital wards. Subjective survey involving questionnaire administration to patients was conducted simultaneously alongside the physical measurement of environmental variables. A total of 268 respondents participated in the subjective measurement of the IEQ variables. The results of this study have shown that hospital ward building orientation and design configuration influenced patient’s satisfaction with and perception of IEQ. The teaching hospital wards with open-plan configuration and Northwest–Southeast orientation have better IEQ as compared to the specialist hospital wards having close-plan configuration and Northeast–Southwest orientation. The level of patient’s satisfaction with and perception of IEQ performance was higher at the teaching hospital. The results further revealed that IEQ parameters contribute to patient’s health outcome and overall satisfaction with the hospital wards. Based on the hospital wards orientation and design configuration, an integrative evaluation framework is proposed that will serve as a diagnostic tool to help designers and planners identify issues relating to IEQ from the patient’s perspective, and develop solutions through the design and construction processes. The integrative evaluation framework suggests weighting schemes for each IEQ parameter as it contributes to patient’s satisfaction. This study serves as feedback to architects in the design processes, and facilities managers towards achieving improvement in sustainable hospital wards design. The outcome will also influence future design of hospital wards towards promoting patient’s health and wellbeing.