Quality of Lighting in Hospital Environments: A Wide Survey Through in Situ Measurements

In hospital buildings, such as in other large and multi-purpose buildings, a wide variety of work environments can be distinguished, each of which characterized by specific visual tasks. In hospitals the visual tasks are often very demanding and consequently the lighting should be functional to ensure efficiency, safety, hygiene and well-being of medical and auxiliary staff, during the development of their activities. For this type of buildings the activity of in situ measurements is strongly recommended in order to evaluate the quality of lighting and also to perform a lighting risk assessment. In this paper an extensive lighting measurements campaign in a hospital is described. The hospital used as a case study is the “Felice Lotti” in Pontedera (Pisa district, Tuscany Region, Italy) where illuminance and luminance measurements have been carried out for different environments with different uses typically found in hospitals. The measurement results are described and discussed in detail, with particular reference to the compliance with the requirements imposed by the technical standards.