Research links for hospital design

Environmental and therapeutic issues in psychiatric hospital design: Toward best practices. Psychiatric Services.

Impact of the physical environment of psychiatric wards on the use of seclusion. British Journal of Psychiatry

The physical environment is presumed to have an effect on aggression and also on the use of seclusion on psychiatric wards. Multicentre studies that include a broad variety of design features found on psychiatric wards and that control for patient, staff and general ward characteristics are scarce.
Data on the building quality and safety of psychiatric as well as forensic wards (n = 199) were combined with data on the frequency and type of coercive measures per admission (n = 23 868 admissions of n = 14 834 patients) on these wards, over a 12-month period. Overall, 14 design features had a significant effect on the risk of being secluded during admission. The ‘presence of an outdoor space’, ‘special safety measures’ and a large ‘number of patients in the building’ increased the risk of being secluded. Design features such as more ‘total private space per patient’, a higher ‘level of comfort’ and greater ‘visibility on the ward’, decreased the risk of being secluded.

Healing environment: A review of the impact of physical environmental factors on users. Building & Environment.

Physical environmental stimuli that turn healthcare facilities into healing environments through psychologically mediated effects: systematic review. Journal of Advanced Nursing

Patient Preferences for Single Rooms or Shared Accommodation in a District General Hospital. Scottish Medical Journal.


To determine whether patients who have used a Scottish district general hospital would prefer single or shared accommodation on a future admission. We surveyed 80 in-patients in January 2008 in order to obtain 20 medical and 20 surgical patients in single rooms and the same number in shared accommodation. Each patient received a sever point questionnaire that had been validated in another centre. Forty four men and 36 women, median 64 years, who had been in hospital for a median of 4.5 days (range 1 to 53 days) participated in the survey. Seventy per cent of patients in shared and 40% of patients in single rooms said they would prefer shared accommodation during a future hospital admission. Those expressing a preference for shared accommodation were older (median age 68 versus 58 years) and had been in hospital for longer (median 5.5 versus 3.5 days) than those who said they would prefer a single room. It is likely that the desire for company among older people who have to spend a week or more in hospital is driving the responses we obtained. Our findings do not support claims that the argument in favour of 100% single rooms is 'overwhelming'

Are decisions about hospital design made upside down? Journal of Medical Ethics

A Review of the Research Literature on Evidence-Based Healthcare Design Health Environments Research & Design Journal

CONSIDERATIONS IN DETERMINING A MODEL FOR THE MENTAL HOSPITAL. American Journal of Psychiatry