Evaluating Therapeutic Healthcare Environmental Criteria: Architectural Designers’ Perspectives

Minjung Cho ()
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Minjung Cho: Department of Architecture, Inha University, 100 Inharo, Michuholgu, Incheon 22212, Republic of Korea

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 2, 1-34

Abstract: This study presents architectural designers’ perception of the importance of healthcare environmental criteria in the implementation of user-centered, therapeutic hospital design. Architectural designers with over three years of professional experience (N = 182) in South Korea were surveyed using an empirical questionnaire. The extensive interviews of 15 hospital design experts followed to interpret the survey results and discuss the barriers and suggestions for the successful delivery of therapeutic healthcare design practice. Among the 27 variables selected from the preliminary literature review, factor analyses revealed seven important therapeutic environmental criteria (i.e., management, interior design, spatial quality, service, nature and rest, ambient indoor comfort, and social program and space; χ 2 = 1783.088, df = 300, p < 0.001). Analyses of variance revealed the level of importance among these criteria related to respondents’ personal and professional characteristics. Significant differences were found for the variables from the management, interior design, and spatial quality factors in relation to the respondents sex and age. For the successful delivery of therapeutic healthcare design, the design experts highlighted the implementation of evidence-based design practice that integrates local and international knowledge from various hospital users and multi-disciplinary specialists participating in the healthcare design process.

Keywords: therapeutic healthcare environment; healthcare facility design; architectural designer; evidence-based healthcare design practice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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