Assessment of the built environment for healthcare: A case study in the development of an evaluation framework

A number of studies (CABE, 2002; Lawson and Phiri, 2005) have shown that good design of healthcare facilities can both benefit patients and raise staff morale. This research focuses on an investigation of patient and staff perceptions of healthcare facilities, particularly with respect to the development of a framework for the evaluation of patient and staff satisfaction with such facilities. Following a comprehensive literature review, two different but interrelated areas of literature, comprising firstly the interrelationship between health and the built environment and secondly the appraisal of healthcare facilities, led to the formation of the research aim, objectives and questions. At the data collection stage, the researcher focused on two existing health centres within Salford PCT as case studies. Existing questionnaires, such as Achieving Excellence Design Evaluation Toolkit (AEDET), were assessed and bespoke questionnaires based on seven groups of features for patients and six groups for staff were developed and piloted. The researcher employed a mixed method approach in the research technique as the data collection process involved two tools: questionnaire and interview. The results of the surveys showed the issues, which most affected users' levels of satisfaction and allowed cross-centre and cross-user group comparisons to be made. Based on the results of the questionnaire surveys, a post-questionnaire factor analysis was undertaken to evaluate and validate the patient questionnaire itself. This resulted in the recommendation, from the findings, that a reconfigured patient questionnaire, based on four factors would best capture the correlated features.