Objective and Subjective Assessment of the Luminous Enviroment in Health Care Buildings: Field Studies and Simulations

This paper presents the results from a field study to evaluate how the luminous environmental quality is perceived by health care building occupants (patients and the nursing staff). Both subjective and objective field analyses were carried out in four hospitals in Turin and Asti (Piedmont, Italy). The subjective study was based on a survey through two different questionnaires submitted to patients/visitors and to the nursing staff, while photometric measurements were collected within 70 sample rooms (including both the bedded and the staff area): illuminances on bed and desks were measured, while HDR luminance maps of the visual scenes as perceived by users were recorded. Results and analyses carried out for the patients’ room are presented in the paper. From objective measurements, a large number of standard non-compliances (both illuminance and daylight factor values) was found. In spite of this, subjective analyses showed that the group of patients and visitors was quite satisfied with the quality and quantity of lighting conditions within their room, while the nursing staff was generally less satisfied (in particular, the doctors expressed the lowest ratings). From both objective and subjective, some strategies to correct incompliances or to approach the design of user centered health care buildings were highlighted. In particular, some preliminary results of the illuminance levels over the patients’ beds or doctors’ desks provided by newly conceived OLED luminaires are presented.