The hospital as a healing environment

In addition to providing optimal care, new style hospitals also aim to provide a healing environment for their clients. Can the architectural features of such hospitals really make patients feel more comfortable, and help them recover more rapidly? If this is indeed the case, then what architectural characteristics and environmental variables have the greatest effect? These are the main issues dealt with in this horizon scanning report, which was drawn up by the Central Committee on Medical Technology Assessment (MTA) of the Health Council of the Netherlands.