Sleep as a moderating value in healthcare facility design.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Design
• Patient Experience
• Environmental Psychology

Background:

• Healthcare design involves multidisciplinary teams, clients, and consultants, with subjective evaluations often lacking objective metrics.
• Complex design interactions can be challenging to evaluate objectively, leading to potential discord among stakeholders.
• Jointly agreed-on values can serve as moderators to harmonize subjective evaluations in design processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the evidence base for the use-value of sleep for hospital inpatients.
• To assess the current quality of sleep experienced by hospital inpatients.
• To identify intrinsic and extrinsic factors, particularly environmental ones, contributing to poor inpatient sleep.

Main Methods:

• Literature review on the value of sleep and quality of inpatient sleep.
• Analysis of intrinsic and extrinsic factors affecting sleep in hospital environments.
• Emphasis on environmental considerations impacting sleep quality.

Main Results:

• Sleep holds significant value for hospital inpatients, even with short-term stays.
• Current inpatient sleep quality is suboptimal and falls short of desired or necessary standards.
• Designers and caregivers are aware of factors promoting good sleep, yet poor conditions persist due to unaddressed choices.

Conclusions:

• The high value of inpatient sleep necessitates improvements in current hospital environments.
• Conflicting stakeholder views and design constraints can be reconciled through shared guiding values.
• Adopting moderating values can facilitate innovation and improve design evaluations in healthcare settings.