Sustainable daylighting in hospital environments: Analysis of barriers and facilitators to workers’ performance, comfort, and health in their workers

Abstract

For some years now, it has been necessary for hospitals to comply with sustainability and environmental energy efficiency standards. In this context one of the most important aspects is the environmental factor lighting, which has an impact on patients and healthcare workers. Research in relation to health care workers is still limited and the daily exposure to possible inadequate indoor environmental conditions is evidently higher than for patients. This paper is part of a doctoral thesis that aims to study the impact of daylighting from an integrative perspective on health workers who carry out diagnostic and treatment tasks in the gynecological obstetric ward of a maternity hospital in the Metropolitan Area of Mendoza. The article presents the
methodological advances in the selection of case studies and their partial results. The first photometric survey of the space shows horizontal illuminance levels in workstations below the requirements of national regulations.