Comfort and satisfaction of patients, visitors and staff with patient rooms at inpatient wards: A pilot study

The indoor environmental quality, control, layout and appearance may affect comfort and satisfaction of patients, as well as visitors and staff in hospitals. Due to differences in activities, duration of stay and health status, needs of the different groups may vary. In order to design hospitals, which positively support comfort and satisfaction of all occupants, information is needed about satisfaction and the perceived importance of different factors. This study compared comfort and satisfaction of patients, visitors and staff with inpatient bedrooms (single and multiple bedrooms). A questionnaire was designed with rating scale questions; 499 respondents participated. The groups varied in their satisfaction. Staff was the least satisfied group. All groups were most satisfied with the appearance of the patient room and least satisfied with control. A qualitative study on control may strengthen the validity of the questionnaire for future research. In order to gain more insight in the importance of different aspects, an extension of the questionnaire, regarding questions about health