Exploration of long-term care institution managers' perceptions of institutional indoor environment quality and ease...

This study investigated the level of management's perception of the importance of indoor environment indicators at long-term care facilities as well as the differences between the level of perceived importance and the level of implementation. This study also analyzed the indicators for improving indoor environments. This study selected Taiwanese long-term care facility managers as its subjects to whom questionnaires were distributed by mail Descriptive statistics, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and an importance-performance analysis were used to conduct analyses on the data retrieved from the questionnaires. The results indicate that, of the indoor environment indicators of four facility spaces, bedrooms had the highest perceived level of importance. The lounge was the easiest space in which to implement the indicators. Differences were found between the perceived level of importance and the level of implementation for six of the indoor environment indicators of the four facility spaces. In these four spaces, the ventilation indicator was the most important, whereas implementing the temperature and humidity indicators was the most difficult. The highest priority for indicator improvement was given to the temperature in the bedrooms and bathrooms, whereas control over temperature, humidity, and sound had a low priority. The indicators seen as requiring continuous maintenance were lighting and ventilation. Facility managers had a high level of awareness and competence in implementing the ventilation indicator. However, although they were aware of the importance of the temperature, humidity, and sound indicators, their implementation was difficult, suggesting that they needed to be improved.