Subjective assessment of indoor air quality and thermal environment in patient rooms: A survey study of Polish hospitals

Abstract

The indoor environment of patient rooms should provide adequate conditions for the safe recovery of the patient. However, in clinical standards, the requirements for conditions in standard patient rooms are either omitted or limited to stating the temperature or humidity. Simultaneously, patients in different countries often feel uncomfortable, and the data indicate large discrepancies in patient room thermal conditions across the world.Therefore, this study aimed to determine how patients in Polish hospitals perceive the indoor environment in their rooms, as well as the relationship between individual patient characteristics (gender and age) and feelings about selected elements of the indoor environment, in addition to feelings related to the self-assessment of the impact of the indoor environment on the recovery process.The results of the presented study indicate that the analysed thermal environment elements are essential in patient rooms and should be given appropriate attention. The individual characteristics of patients, including those caused by illness and medication, make it impossible to create a comfortable environment for each patient in a multi-patient room, and solutions and guidelines to support the recovery process of patients should continue to be developed, including solutions that provide opportunities to create a controlled environment around each patient.