Background and Purpose:While providing medical services, hospitals generate many data about patients. Such medical data could contribute to better treatments once their associations or patterns have been identified. With properly analyzed medical data, traditional knowledge at an individual level could be further extended to broader populations. This comprehensive study was performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of light using medical data accumulated over 15 years.Methods:Patients who were admitted to the window or door side of a six-bedded room were included. Patients admitted to the emergency room and elderly people aged >80 years were excluded. Patients’ length of stay was compared per what bed they were in (excluding middle beds). A multiple regression analysis was performed with patients admitted to the window or door side to determine whether the window affected their hospital stay. In addition, a multiple regression analysis was performed after adjusting for confounders by 1:1 matching between the two groups (ie, age, sex, and admitting department).Results:Participants were 38 788 patients with a bed near the window and 46 233 patients with a bed near the door. Results revealed that patients’ length of stay was shorter for those near the window compared with those near the door, which was also true after group matching (33 921 participants in each group).Conclusions:Clinical trials that test evidence-based designs of physical environments in wards or hospital rooms are usually difficult to perform. As an alternative strategy, using accumulated electronic medical data, we assessed this key element of hospital design.
Contemporary cities have different types of mixed-use complexes to increase urban density for preventing suburban sprawl. Intermediary space is a third space that connects a mixed-use complex and its surrounding area. This study examined the main functions of intermediary spaces and user satisfaction with the intermediary spaces’ amenities in three European mixed-use mega-complexes. It focused on various amenity elements in intermediary spaces, including daylight, noise, green space, condition of facility, management, and accessibility. The data were collected through site visits and a questionnaire survey of space users in the three mixed-use complexes. Major findings identified the main purposes of visitation to intermediary spaces, the amenity elements affecting user satisfaction, and the relationship between users’ satisfaction with these spaces and their perceptions of the complexes. Results showed that intermediary spaces functioned in various ways and users’ satisfaction with these spaces related closely to their perceptions of complex buildings. Evidence from the research will provide important guidelines for improving environmental quality of intermediary spaces to make them more functional for space users.
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