Profiling outpatient staff based on their self-reported comfort and preferences of indoor environmental quality and social comfort in six hospitals

Comfort and health of outpatient staff is important due to the growing demand of healthcare and its crucial influence on society. Previous studies have mostly focused on the perception of comfort and indicated a large prevalence of building-related symptoms and dissatisfaction with comfort of staff in hospital buildings. Unfortunately, limited information was available of the individual preferences in relation to building aspects, especially in outpatient areas. This study aims to understand the preferences of outpatient staff in relation to their comfort, health, work- and building-related aspects. Data were collected with a survey from 556 outpatient workers in six hospital buildings and building inspection of 107 rooms. TwoStep cluster analysis was performed to identify groups with clear differences in preferences and comfort, that justify the variation of individual comfort and preferences of outpatient workers. Six clusters were produced for preferences and comfort with IEQ; three clusters were produced for preferences and comfort with social aspects. The clusters indicated that preferences and comfort of IEQ are related to health. The social clusters varied in activities of outpatient staff. As the overlap of the profiles of the IEQ clusters with the profiles of the social clusters was limited, the results suggest that it is important to study both simultaneously. Surprisingly, relations with building-related aspects were for both cluster-sets limited. This suggests that outpatient staff members do not relate their preferences to the actual building where they are working.