Hospital design and patient outcome : a review of evidence

Abstract

Background: Hospitals are important and special building facility for the treatment of patients. It was announced in latest Policy Address that the Hong Kong Government will invest $200 billion Hong Kong dollars in building new hospitals in the next ten years. Facility planning, as much as other discipline in medicine, should be based on scientific evidence. This report outlined a structured review of literature that identify interventional control studies performed regarding the relationship between hospital environment and patient outcome. The available evidence would be beneficial to the future development and planning of hospital facilities for the future of Hong Kong. Method: Systematic keyword search in Pubmed database was performed to identify interventional studies reporting the effect of environmental factors in health care facilities were included. Studies identified would report on the comparison between intervention group and control group. English literature was included. Results: 13 interventional control studies were identified. They showed positive outcome for patients managed in the hospital environment with altered material used, exposure to sunlight, specially designed unit and visual/auditory environment. Discussion: Best practice guidelines for designing of health care facilities are available overseas and it is lacking in our local setting. This review provides a review of the existing quantitative evidence on the topic and it is believed that an evidence-based approach should be adopted in planning and development of new hospitals in Hong Kong.