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Size and complexity of hospitals matter for quality of care: A spatial classification of NHS buildings

Pachilova, R; Sailer, K; (2015) Size and complexity of hospitals matter for quality of care: A spatial classification of NHS buildings. In:

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Abstract

The relationship between quality of care and hospital environments has been established in previous research, which proved that environmental and configurational factors could affect health outcomes. However, the focus of these studies was on single cases and results were not always comparable. To fill this gap in knowledge, the aim of the paper is to classify NHS hospitals according to building properties and to study the relation between the physical environment and healthcare adopting a top-level approach. This was initiated by the recent quality of care inspections of NHS hospitals. The main arising question was to see whether spatial layout could be related to quality of care problems. Such a classification however was not straightforward because of the condition of the NHS estates. Almost each campus consists of a hotchpotch of buildings of different sizes, built in different years and adopting various typologies. Therefore, a classification based on the relation between different spatial elements was proposed and adopted. Various data sets were used to gather the necessary information for a top-level classification. The Care Quality Commission and the NHS Hospital Estates and Facilities Statistics were the two main data sources. Information regarding quality of care and building metrics was obtained from these data sets. Details about the spatial configuration of the buildings were retrieved manually for a selected set of hospitals and their spatial properties were analysed. The presented results suggest that the quality of care is influenced by the size of the hospital campus and its complexity i.e. the number of distinctive buildings on site. Such a relationship is not surprising because smaller and less complex buildings are occupied by smaller and less separated organisations and thus the dimensions of the building enhance communication and flow of information between different teams. The results could give insights to future planning policies and new building developments on NHS hospital sites.

Type: Proceedings paper
Title: Size and complexity of hospitals matter for quality of care: A spatial classification of NHS buildings
ISBN-13: 9780993342905
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett School of Architecture
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1470599
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