An Integrated Review of Evidence-based Healthcare Designfor Healing Environments: Focusing on Long-term Care Facilities

Abstract

In preparation for the aging and aged society, long-term care facilities should develop healing environments to provide the elderly with physical, psychological, and social support for their quality of life. Therefore, this study aimed to suggest evidence-based guidelines by identifying factors affecting healing environments of long-term care facilities. An integrated review of the literature was conducted to discuss the concept of the healing environment and its attributes (evidence-based design, aging-friendly universal design, and evidence-based healthcare design). Factors for evidence-based design guidelines of long-term care facilities were identified from the literature including the model of the Evidence-based Design Wheel and the framework of the Evidence-based Design Process. Considering the general, physical, psychological, and social characteristics of the elderly, essential elements of the healing environment were classified into three categories such as environmental control, positive distraction, and social support. Factors affecting the healing environment for designing long-term care facilities, which also improve healthcare outcomes, were expanded including (1) human elements for individual needs and psychosocial support, (2) spatial elements for positive distraction, and (3) behavioral elements for controlling environment. As a result, the evidence-based guidelines for transformational changes in healthcare design were proposed in this study. To prepare for an aging and aged society, the guidelines can be served as a framework for evidence-based design interventions to improve healthcare outcomes of the elderly.