The Effect of Supportive Care Environment on the Treatment Process in Hospitals: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Objectives: According to the available evidence, changes in the design of medical centers, which can create a more comfortable, pleasant, and natural environment, have reduced the patient tensions and increased their satisfaction with the quality of treatment in the given centers. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of the architecture and design of a supportive care environment on the treatment process in hospitals adopting a qualitative study design. Materials and Methods: This qualitative study with a phenomenological approach was conducted to investigate the effect of an optimal supportive care environment in hospitals based on the experiences and opinions of experts, university professors of architecture, and doctors in hospitals. To this end, experts were interviewed qualitatively and, then, eight main themes as well as 22 sub-themes were classified by performing content analysis. Furthermore, the effect of the environment on the patients, treatment control length, blood pressure control, and subjective nature of the disease’s impact, as well as the effect of social relations on the vital signs, comprehensiveness and acceptability, place of using the supportive care model and a completely mechanical attitude towards humans in the modern period were all evaluated. Results: The effect of the optimal supportive care environment on the patients’ treatment processes was confirmed by qualitatively reviewing the experts’ viewpoints and collecting comprehensive information from other sources. Conclusions: In sum, it was recommended that that the heads of the hospitals should consider the concepts of optimal supportive care environment when designing and/or reconstructing hospitals.