Exploring Campus Configuration and Patient Arrival Behaviors at Large Hospitals: An Integrated Post-Occupancy...

Area of Science:

• Urban planning
• Environmental psychology
• Architectural design

Background:

• Hospital navigation challenges extend beyond interiors to outdoor arrival zones.
• Understanding vehicular and pedestrian transitions is crucial for effective wayfinding.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore vehicular and pedestrian behaviors in hospital arrival zones using Space Syntax Analyses (SSA).
• To validate SSA findings with empirical data from onsite observations and behavior mapping.

Main Methods:

• Conducted axial map analyses of hospital campus and arrival zones for spatial connectivity and wayfinding intelligibility.
• Collected systematic behavioral data through vehicle shadowing (10 hours) and pedestrian mapping (20 hours).

Main Results:

• SSA revealed high intelligibility scores for vehicular (R=0.91) and pedestrian (R=0.78) circulation.
• Analysis of 219 vehicles and 2,096 pedestrians showed strong correlations between spatial integration and traffic volumes.

Conclusions:

• An integrated protocol using SSA can evaluate campus configuration and building approach design impacts on patient arrival.
• This protocol serves as a Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) for large hospital spatial navigation.