By Healthcare Facilities Today

In a recent blog on the Healthcare Design magazine website, managing editor Jennifer Kovacs Silvis says the positive effects of a well-lit room are more than just a feeling, they are scientific facts.

"Craig Zimring, professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, shared at the recent Healthcare Design Conference that since 2002, scientists have realized that there’s a receptor in the eye that’s responsible for the non-visual impacts of lighting," she wrote.

Light can affect alertness, pain, sleep, mood, comfort, experience, and circadian rhythm, so light can play a pretty significant role in the patient environment, the blog said.

At the conference session,“Evaluating Innovative Lighting Solutions for Inpatient Rooms,” the speakers created a lighting checklist to use in evaluating lighting designs, covering 14 scenarios to assess and measure how certain you are that a lighting proposal will achieve these goals. Examples include reducing falls, improving patient/family experience and reducing energy use.

Read the blog.