Evaluating the suitability of standard thermal comfort approaches for hospital patients in air-conditioned environments in hot climates

Hospital patients have the same thermal needs but disparate metabolic levels, and physical/medical conditions. However, the thermal environments of hospitals are often not designed with these distinctions in mind, nor with a particular focus on patients, but based rather on standard comfort methodologies more often used in offices. This paper seeks to confirm if a standard steady-state thermal comfort approach is inadequate, especially in hot climates. The research was conducted on 120 patients during the summer of 2017 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with environmental monitoring of all thermal comfort parameters, alongside estimations of clothing insulation and activity levels for patients in the surgical and medical wards. The data was analysed using simple and multiple regressions, and measures of correlations tests to assess the reliability of the results in addition to t-tests for detecting the differences. The findings revealed a significant difference between the Thermal Sensation Vote (TSV, assessed by patient surveys), and the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV, assessed by physical measurement), with the TSV survey approach failing to identify a unique neutral temperature while the PMV revealed a neutral temperature of 25.6 C. Importantly, the neutral temperature predicted by Griffith’s method gave an extremely large range of results, form 16.2 C–28.8 C (mean = 22.7 C; SD = 2.51). The corollary being that using PMV or a non-patient-specific temperature for hospital rooms is a poor idea. Given the known links between hospital environments and recovery outcomes, this result has implications for the design of hospital environments and the setting of national or international standard

Thermal comfort standards in the Middle East: Current and future challenges

Cooling energy demand has increased three-fold in the Middle East (ME) over the last 30-years. This is driven by the need to maintain thermal comfort in an extremely hot climate, and supported by rising incomes, falling costs of air-conditioning and growth in the number of buildings. The definition of thermal comfort in these buildings is drawn from “international” standards, which, though empirically derived, have no basis data from this region. Hence, we ask, to what extent do indoor conditions in the ME fall within the standards recommended range of thermal comfort, and when they do, whether they are found to be comfortable by their occupants. We present the first large-scale study of thermal comfort in the ME, consisting of two approaches: (i) a meta-analysis of data from existing studies, (ii) independent field data covering four countries representing 27% of the region's population, 31 air-conditioned buildings of different types, including “green” buildings, and 1,101 subjects. The meta-analysis demonstrates that current thermal comfort standards fail to predict thermal sensation of 94% of occupants. Our own data show that, while indoor conditions are within standards-recommended ranges 58% of the time, only 40% of occupants find these conditions acceptable. We find evidence of overcooling in summers, with 39% occupants expressing cold discomfort. Computer models suggest that this is likely to have increased annual cooling energy demand between 13% and 20%, compared to non-overcooled conditions. These results suggest the necessity of localised thermal comfort standards that mitigate excess cooling energy demand, without compromising occupant thermal comfort.</p

Dataset for "Evaluating the suitability of standard thermal comfort approaches for hospital patients in air-conditioned environments in hot climates"

This research aims to examine the suitability of classical thermal comfort approaches for hospital patients. For that purpose, the data was gathered in three phases in May, June, and July 2017 at the International Medical Centre (IMC) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which was selected as an example of a best-practice hospital. Environmental monitoring for a week of each month in the summer season was undertaken to assess thermal environmental parameters. This was supported by simultaneous comfort surveys of the sample patients.The used methodology is objective measurements and patients' surveys simultaneously. Objective measurements: Indoor air temperature (Ta), mean radiant temperature (Tr), air velocity (V), and relative humidity (Rh), along with estimations of patients’ metabolic rates (met) and notes about clothing insulation (clo), were recorded. Surveys: The survey consists of several questions; thermal sensation votes, health scale, parts of day, and demographics.Swema equipment was used to measure the indoor environment parameters. Data was stored in Excel and R was used to analyse the data

Dataset for "Thermal environment perceptions from longitudinal study of indoor temperature profiles in inpatient wards"

This research investigated the indoor air temperature and relative humidity profiles for 18 patient rooms in surgical, medical, cardiology and oncology wards in two hospitals. Also, 522 patient thermal surveys were completed in parallel with the monitoring task. The monitoring covered the hottest summer months; June, July, August, September in 2018 in Saudi Arabia. The selected hospitals were (i) the International Medical Centre (IMC), Jeddah and (ii) King Abdullah Medical City (KAMC), Makkah.Longitudinal monitoring of indoor temperature and relative humidity was conducted over an extended period of time. Thermal comfort surveys were administrated to inpatients.18 Raspberry Pi+3 dataloggers were mounted in 18 patient rooms across the two hospitals. Each datalogger has two sensors; a probe wire for temperature and a tiny sensor for humidity. Readings were transferred off the dataloggers every two weeks during site visits

Dataset for "Combined multi-attribute inpatient thermal comfort requirements in hospitals: A designer's assessment method"

Hospital Environmental Appraisal for Thermal-comfort (HEAT) is an evidence-based design tool created based on 52 pieces of research evidence that seeks to enhance decision-making related to patient thermal comfort (PTC) issues in inpatient wards. The framework of the tool is based on eight essential design domains that are; design flexibility, coordination, thermal adaptation, temperature ranges, activity level, external shading, building monitoring and airstream. Eight non-technical statements are driven from design domains to address common PTC issues. Hence, each statement provides a list of design recommendations to inform a variety of solutions that would be considered at several design phases.The evidence-based design combined with Design Science Research (DSR) was used to develop the tool. Specifically, a systematic literature review and double validation approach through semi-structured interviews and online surveys were conducted with healthcare designers.The tool was completely developed on Micrsoft Excel.The tool spreadsheet is straightforward. 'Read me' sheet introduces sufficient information on how the tool can be used by healthcare designers

Knowledge, Skills and Trends the Higher Education needs from the secondary stage Graduate (Analytical study)

The main objective of this study is to try to identity the knowledge. the skills and the trends requirements must be available in a secondary Stage graduate. so that he can complete higher education. To achieve this objective, the Study followed the analytical descriptive methodology. The Student Inducted those requirements through reading many studies. reports and documents-Besides the explaining the terminologies and presentation of the previous related studies. the Study comprised the following three axels; - The knowledge, skill and value required for the Secondary Stage (ST) graduate to continue his higher education. - The gap between the knowledge, skill and value preparation of the ST graduates and the higher education requirements. - The methods of titling the gap between the St graduate preparation process and the higher education requirements. The Study concluded to the diagnosis of the dimensions of this gap between the ST graduates preparation process and the higher education requirements. it recommended the necessity to open communication channels between those too educational stages. It also proposed preview of how to establish a participation between them to till that gap and to make the ST graduate continue his higher education successfully, which reduces the loss in higher education

Knowledge. Skills and Trends the Higher Education needs from the Secondary Stage Graduate

The main objective of this study is to try to identity the knowledge. the skills and the trends requirements must be available in aSecondar, Stage graduate. so that he can complete higher education. To achieve this objectixe.the Study followed the analytical descriptivemethodology. The Student Inducted those requirements through reading many studies. reports and doc uments-Besides the explaining the terminologies and presentation ofthe previous related studies. the Study comprised the lotion ing three axels;The knowledge, skill and value required for the Secondary Stage {ST} graduate to continue his higher education.The gap between the knowledge, skill and talue preparation of the ST graduates and the higher education requirements.The methods of titling the gap between the St graduate preparation process and the higher education requirements.The Stud, r concluded to the diagnosis of the dimensions ot‘this gap between the ST graduates preparation process and the higher educationrequirements. it recommended the necessity to open communication channels between those too educational stages. It also proposed aproxiew of how to establish a participation between them to till that gap and to make the ST graduate continue his higher educationsuccessfully, which reduces the loss in higher education

Thermal Environment Perceptions from a Longitudinal Study of Indoor Temperature Profiles in Inpatient Wards

Inpatient wards in general have cooling systems with a “one-size-fits-all” approach, driven by a fixed set-point temperature (21–24 °C) that is flexible to lower limits down to 18 °C or less. This approach does not consider patients’ temperature demands, which vary due to thermo-physiology caused by medical conditions, and mixed demographics. It also causes additional cooling demands in hot climates that are infrequently utilized by patients, who tend to adopt warmer internal set temperatures. Thus, this research examined the indoor temperature profiles (distribution of shape) in patient rooms in fully air-conditioned inpatient wards over an extended period of time. During four months of summer, longitudinal monitoring of internal temperature and relative humidity was carried out in 18 patient rooms in the surgical, medical, cardiology, and oncology wards of two hospitals in Saudi Arabia. In parallel, 522 patients were surveyed to capture common subjective thermal indices. The findings revealed that the most frequently preferred temperature (peaks) varied significantly between wards; peaks (modes) were 20.1–21.8 °C in cardiology; 22.2–23.9 °C in the surgical ward; warmer 24.8–25.3 °C in medical ward; and 25.3–26.8 °C in oncology. Surveys also showed that patients were not satisfied with the indoor environment in both hospitals. Given the significant variance in temperature profiles between wards and patient dissatisfaction with the indoor environment, these results suggest that more appropriately designed zoned cooling strategies are needed in hospitals as per the nature of each ward. Besides its implications for benchmarking the HVAC system, this approach will substantially reduce energy loads and operational costs in hot-climate hospitals if patients desire warmer conditions than the set conditions provided by system