Indoor Environmental Quality Assessment of Inpatient Wards, Case Study: Public Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is more crucial in hospitals than other building types due to its effects on the recovery of patients.In Saudi Arabia, there is a lack of hospital design guidelines prioritizing IEQ, making it difficult to design spaces that provide adequate levels of comfort.In this study, objective and subjective assessments utilizing field measurements and focus groups were conducted on inpatient wards in a public hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to develop IEQ-focused design guidelines that provide users with more comfort and satisfaction.The objective assessment targeted the four main parameters of IEQ: thermal, acoustical, visual comfort, and indoor air quality.The subjective assessment targeted the same four parameters by gauging the satisfaction level of three hospital user groups: patients, visitors, in addition to nurses and resident doctors as one group.A correlated analysis between both assessments revealed that Thermal Comfort and Indoor Air Quality were closest to acceptability, whereas Visual and Acoustic Comfort were less satisfactory.A set of categorized IEQ-focused design guidelines was then developed based on the IEQ-related design issues concluded from the analysis