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Lighting for Healthcare

Lighting for Healthcare - Learning Objectives

1. What makes good healthcare lighting?
2. What country has standards for healthcare lighting?
3. What is the wavelength for the color of blood?
   What lighting wavelength is required for detecting sepsis?
   

Healthcare Lighting

Our medical facilities should be designed to provide healthful environments inside and out where staff and patients can have an optimal work and care environment.

A healthy building has lighting designed to do no harm to the occupants nor the environment.

When selecting lighting sources for healthcare, keep in mind, "You cannot see a color unless the wavelength is present in the light source."  We are used to seeing colors in daylight and this is the ultimate light source; however, many clinical settings are in basements or other windowless environments, and also, services are offered after dark. Include specific wavelengths for detecting blood disorders, blue lips, and blood infections.

The bewildering array of light sources and lighting fixture choices is confusing. Understanding how colors appear under different light sources, CRI, CCT, and other metrics for color rendering, and controlling glare are all important lighting challenges.
The Lighting Facts Card describes some qualities of light source. [1] See Color in Light Sources.

Doctors, Nurses, & Volunteers

"Many volunteers are retired, but want to continue to be active in the community.  Doctors and nurses are aging and will need appropriate light to carry out their work.  In 2010, 40% f doctors were over the age of 55, and 33 % of nurses were over the age of 50." [2]

Lighting for Hospitals and Healthcare Facilities | IES

IES RP 29-16 Care Facilities by the Facility Guidelines Institute (FGI).1 Part I of this document addresses the many design considerations important for healthcare facilities, while Part II identifies specific room types that have unique lighting needs.

Light and Health Alliances

The Light and Health Alliance is a collaboration among Members (manufacturers, government organizations and NGOs, codes and standards bodies) and practitioners, including architects, specifiers, medical facility managers and physicians, to enable the broad adoption of lighting for human health by producing factual information based on basic and applied research and by visualizing future applications.

http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/lightHealth/alliance.asp

International Well Building Institute

The way that buildings are designed, constructed and maintained impacts the way we sleep, what we eat, and how we feel. The WELL Building StandardTM uses innovative, research-backed strategies to advance health, happiness, mindfulness and productivity in our buildings and communities.
https://standard.wellcertified.com/light   &  
https://www.wellcertified.com/your-community

Related Topics

Color in Light Sources & LED Comparisons,     Manufacturer's Educational Links, LED for your B&B, Color in Paint - Why they Fade , Human Centric Lighting, Circadian System, Photosensitivity Light Sensitive Drugs, Ecology of Night Lighting, Aging Eye & Senior Lighting, Institutions & Research, Lighting for Healthy Buildings

Footnotes

1. http://www.lightingfacts.com/Library/Content/Label
   
2. IES RP-28-16 Lighting and the Visual Environment for Seniors and the Low Vision Population  IES.org
   

Photo Credits

• Daysimeter - http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/lightHealth/LightandDaysimeter.asp