Combined evaluation of workplace performance using occupants\u27 subjective assessment and objective measurement of environmental conditions : a case study

The case study presents findings from a program of pre- and post-evaluations of buildings sponsored by the NSW government. The program aims to demonstrate leadership in the delivery of government accommodation and to provide feedback into the building design and management process.The results from a combined evaluation of an ABGR 4.5 star government building using the KODO probe&copy; occupant surveys and measures of environmental conditions, carried out by the Mobile Architecture and Built Environment Laboratory (MABEL) at Deakin University are summarised. In particular the paper will present the benefits of innovative performance evaluation of property for commercial benefit using the KODO productivity topographic maps&copy;.These maps isolate where facility solutions are needed as opposed to tenant/occupant solutions in order to optimise building and business outcomes with minimal capital investment.<br /

Occupant satisfaction with workplace design in new and old environments

Purpose: &ndash; The aim of this paper is to investigate time-factors in occupant-environment relationships.Design/methodology/approach: &ndash; The paper analyses satisfaction ratings on 12 workplace environment features collected from more than 5,000 occupants in 48 office buildings in Australia. The database is divided into seven environment categories: first occupied after construction; new occupation after major update; recent relocation into an existing environment; re-occupying an environment after refurbishment; relocation of workspace in an existing environment; acclimatised occupation of a refurbished workspace; and continued occupation of an existing environment. Cumulative frequency profiles of the collected ratings for each of these categories are analysed qualitatively and quantitatively.Findings: &ndash; The study shows that updated environments which are occupied by the same organisation before and after refurbishment are more successful than environments which are occupied by a new organisation after update. New buildings provide the greatest number of satisfied occupants. While many workplace design aspects are successfully addressed in newly designed and updated environments, satisfaction with acoustic and visual design features is equally poor in all investigated environment categories.Originality/value: &ndash; The study develops understanding of which environment categories, defined by the duration of the occupant-environment relationships, are most successful in providing satisfying design features. The study thereby provides advice for facility management decision making. <br /

How a universal health system reduces inequalities: lessons from England

Background: Provision of universal coverage is essential for achieving equity in healthcare, but inequalities still exist in universal healthcare systems. Between 2004/5 and 2011/12 the English NHS, which has provided universal coverage since 1948, made sustained efforts to reduce health inequalities by strengthening primary care. We provide the first comprehensive assessment of trends in socioeconomic inequalities of primary care access, quality and outcomes during this period. Methods: Whole-population small area longitudinal study, based on 32,482 neighbourhoods of approximately 1,500 people in England from 2004/5 to 2011/12. We measured slope indices of inequality in four indicators: (i) patients per family doctor (ii) primary care quality (iii) preventable emergency hospital admissions and (iv) mortality from conditions considered amenable to healthcare. Results: Between 2004/5 and 2011/12 there were larger absolute improvements on all indicators in more deprived neighbourhoods. The modelled gap between the most and least deprived neighbourhoods in England decreased by: 193 patients per family doctor (95% confidence interval 173 to 213), 3.29 percentage points of primary care quality (3.13 to 3.45), 0.42 preventable hospitalisations per 1,000 people (0.29 to 0.55) and 0.23 amenable deaths per 1,000 people (0.15 to 0.31). By 2011/12 inequalities in primary care supply and quality were almost eliminated but socio-economic inequality was still associated with 158,396 preventable hospitalisations and 37,983 deaths amenable to healthcare. Conclusions: Between 2004/5 and 2011/12 the NHS succeeded in substantially reducing socioeconomic inequalities in primary care access and quality but made only modest reductions in healthcare outcome inequalities

Assessing occupant comfort in an iconic sustainable education building

The building that houses the Mirvac School of Sustainable Development at Bond University is the first educational building to achieve a six Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. It has won numerous awards since opening in August 2008 including being judged the RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) Sustainable Building of 2009. After more than two years in use a post-occupancy evaluation study was carried out to assess the performance of the building from the viewpoint of the users; both resident staff and transient students. Results for factors such as lighting, thermal comfort, noise and air quality. were compared to benchmarks established by the Usable Buildings Trust. The evaluation also assessed the occupants’ perceptions of the building’s impact on their own productivity. Users generally find the building provides a comfortable work environment although a number of areas of performance were noted as posing some concerns. These included intrusive noise in some parts of the building and some issues with glare in daylit teaching spaces. Such concerns were found to be in accord with the results of previous studies and they highlight some recurrent problems in “green” buildings designed to maximise the use of natural ventilation and natural light. These design challenges and how occupant satisfaction is to be measured and benchmarked are also discussed in the context of this comparative building study. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp