A conceptual model for improving the architectural quality of evidence-based general hospital (EBD) with an emphasis on patient satisfaction (Case study: Bahman Hospital)

The desirability of a space depends on the level of users’ satisfaction with that environment. A person’s satisfaction with the environment also depends on providing different levels of his personal and social needs. Several factors contribute to creating a more negative hospital experience. The first reason is prioritizing the treatment process and clinical relationships between spaces in the process of designing and building hospitals. In this attitude, the hospital is on one side and its users are on the other, and there is no positive two-way interaction between them. The typical hospital designs in Iran are typographical, with a strong focus on spatial functionality and compatibility with the treatment process. However, this unintentionally leads to a non-human appearance, detracting from the overall human-centered environment of the hospital. The second problem is the passive position of the patient in the treatment spaces. Setting a specific range for patient presence and staff dependence, due to the nature of the disease and spatial design, places them in a position of passivity. This confines them to spending their hospitalization time solely within the hospital room and relying on assistance from others. This situation negatively impacts the individual’s identity and their social life. The third reason is the existence of fixed thinking and ideas about hospital spaces in the mentality of policymakers and designers. For example, in the public’s view, the idea of a bedroom is a general and fixed mentality, which usually manifests as a white room with standard sizes and no decorative elements. This is while all the environmental elements together create a general atmosphere that the patient mentally compares with home during the days of his presence. The absence of meaning in the inpatient ward space impacts the patient’s relationship with the environment, leading to feelings of unfamiliarity and discomfort, and ultimately causing stress due to the lack of alignment with the surroundings. The fourth reason is the lack of attention to the role of the quality of life related to the health of employees on the well-being of patients. Patients are significantly impacted by the attitudes of the hospital staff during treatment and their adjustment to the surroundings. Thus, enhancing the supportive capacity of the environment necessitates a dual perspective, encompassing the preferences of both patients and employees. In recent years, when the safety of patients and improving their outcomes have been taken into consideration, designers, due to the need to replace dilapidated buildings, due to the need of patients to provide patient-centered services, and due to the reduction of preventable accidents, to a topic called “based design” They turned to the evidence. In evidence-based design, focuses on the importance of using valid data to influence the design process. This approach in the design of hospitals is known as “an effort to improve the lives of patients and their families, reduce stress, improve the process of disease treatment, safety and security of patients”. Evidence-based design was used to create environments that support families, treat illness effectively, enhance employee performance, and restore employee power under anxiety and work pressure. An evidence-based designer, together with an informed employer, makes decisions based on the best available data obtained from their research and evaluation. Finally, a valid evidence-based treatment should result in work efficiency, improvements in treatment outcomes, and economic performance to satisfy the patients. Today, the healthcare sector, like other social and economic sectors active in countries, seeks to adapt to these rapid changes in the world. Medical facilities, an integral part of healthcare services, have received particular focus to adapt to evolving needs in many nations. What is common among different countries in the direction of possible future changes is to pay attention to the fact that medical centers need to be reviewed and redesigned. Among the changes that have recently suggested the need to redesign medical centers, we can refer to the advancement of health technology In recent years, the expectations of patients from medical centers have changed towards changing the role of hospitals from providing medical services to increasing social welfare services. The use of evidence and scientific data to make decisions about the patient care environment has been rapidly developing and expanding in recent years; if we do not base the quality of the therapeutic environment on the data and evidence of the research findings, it seems a risk.