2005, Vol.11, No.3

JOURNAL OF THE KOREA INSTITUTE OF HEALTHCARE ARCHITECTURE 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.46

pISSN : 2733-8649 / eISSN : 2733-8657
https://journal.kci.go.kr/ikiha

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performances of 5 hospitals which have some different management systems and how are the differences in performance and what do they mean in aspects of architectural planning, if they exist. All of hospitals are located in M city, Jeonnam Province. Data sources are each hospital's patient-statistics and profit & loss statements. Management systems of surveyed hospitals consist in 2 inpatient-based, 1 outpatient-focused and 2 hospitals, not showing any characteristics. Time ranges for survey are 5 years from 1999 through 2003.

As the population of the elderly increases drastically year by year in Korea, the more welfare centers for them are greatly needed. There are, however, a small number of public geriatric hospitals currently available. And a limited number of private-founded geriatric centers are under construction throughout the country. And the systematic standards for the spacial composition and departmental area distribution for them are not satisfactorily set up yet.The analytical study of the space composition and area distribution of the hospitals in question shows that publicly-shared spaces, such as day-room and lobby, are much more useful for their communications than private spaces, such as shut-in living rooms. It also shows that in-yards or in-gardens which are located in the center of the wards are very helpful for their comfortable long-term hospitalization. The shared spaces are recommended to be in sight of and within earshot of their caretakers. In relation with out-patient departments, the programs for the local elderly residents, such as the day-care center and recreation facilities are recommended to be prepared for their physical care and emotional treatment at a time by municipal welfare centers rather than by private institutions. The analytic study carried out in terms of departmental area distributions reveals that the areas for the wards are generally wider and areas for out-patient/or diagnosis departments are relatively narrower than those in the general hospitals. These area distributions seem to have come from the considerations of their relatively long-term staying in the centers than general hospitals and their mental stability as well.

The conventional corridor space was a functional space simply linking the rooms and facilitating the circulations in a hospital. Today, however, they are no longer the spaces for simple circulation. Now, they are changing into healing spaces. Healing space must have some spatial characteristics helpful to curing the patients, and therefore, such a space should be designed to encourage patients to have diverse experiences and behaviors in terms of psychological stability, rehabilitation and personal communication.With such basic conceptions in mind, this study was aimed at surveying and analyzing patients' behaviors of using the corridor spaces for general hospital wards. To this end, middle corridors and patio-type side corridors for general hospital wards in Korea were sampled. It was found through this study that various healing behaviors shown in the conventional middle corridors were witnessed in the patio-type side corridors. On the other hand, behavioral characteristics of each area were analyzed to determine the factors encouraging patients to be cured, and thereupon, some design points for the corridor spaces of general hospital wards were suggested to help their users quick recovering.