Research on Design Guidelines for Healing Environments of Elderly Care Hospital Rooms Based on WELL Building Standard

This study, based on the WELL Health Building Standard as the theoretical framework, combined with case analyses of 38 geriatric care hospital wards in South Korea and multi-group questionnaires (60 responses each from the medical service, design field, and elderly population groups), systematically explored the design elements and their importance cognition of healing environments in hospital rooms. Through cross-comparison analysis, quantitative (SPSS 25.0 multiple regressions, correlation analysis) and qualitative (ATLAS.ti 9 coding) data fusion methods, the study proposed four core design principles centered on “Beauty and Design,” “Nature Connectedness,” “Privacy,” and “Community and Information” and selected 36 key assessment indicators. The data analysis indicated that the perceived importance of the elderly population (AX) had the greatest impact on the compliance rate of rooms (AR) (β = 0.506, p = 0.002) and the medical staff group (AT) paid more attention to functional design (β = 0.506, p = 0.005), while the designer group (AV) emphasized aesthetic innovation and natural light planning (β = 0.367, p = 0.28). The study further proposed a hierarchical optimization strategy, emphasizing the balanced design of functional requirements, aesthetic innovation, and patient experience through cross-group collaborative design mechanisms. The research results provide theoretical and practical guidance for the healing environmental optimization of hospital rooms in elderly care hospitals.