Healthcare professionals - this one's for you.

 
It’s simple, really. 

Patients can’t function without proper medical facilities.

Medical facilities can’t function without its staff. 
Its staff can’t function without adequate lighting.

Each element directly impacting the others.

The hustle and bustle inside hospitals and other healthcare facilities never ceases. Always expected to deliver the highest performance of work, these individuals carry heavy expectations with little to no room for error. Along with proper education, regular sleep regiment, a healthy lifestyle, and commitment to their career, effective lighting can directly impact the health of a hospital’s staff as well as its patients. In fact, it’s actually a critical component for successful healthcare facility. 

How so, you may ask?

Various studies have been conducted in which reveal the connection lighting has on the impact of human health and performance in healthcare settings. Here are some of the findings that reveal the positive results of lighting: 

1. Enables critical chemical reactions in the body

Sufficient lighting helps provide appropriate levels of Vitamin D to staff and patients. Exposure to light is critical for Vitamin D metabolism in the human body. Light radiation is absorbed directly by the body through the skin and stimulates chemical reactions in the blood and other tissues. 

2. Better performance of visual tasks 

Healthcare professionals have a variety of visual tasks to complete throughout their shift. Whether it’s charting, filling prescriptions, administering medication, or performing other critical patient-care tasks, specific-utility lighting is vital to produce the best results. 
 
3. Thermal management

Temperature is another factor that impacts the performance inside a hospital. These facilities need to be closely temperature-controlled to ensure the best environment for patients. With LED lighting, less heat is emitted and can be dialed into to maintain balance.

4. Improves adjustment to night-shift work among staff

Healthcare professionals typically have a much different scheduling than the typical 8-5. Therefore, their bodies must adapt to a different sleeping cycle to re-energize. Staff on the late night/early morning shifts are susceptible to decreased alertness, performance, and vigilance. Effective lighting is connected to helping staff carry themselves throughout the entirety of their workday. 

5. Lowers pain and alters mood

Appropriate amount of lighting is connected to reduces a patient’s physical pain as well as their psychological state.

6. Reduces depression among patients

For most individuals, hospitals are not the ideal place to spend a large amount of time. Therefore, patients can become lonely, discouraged, and even depressed. Connected to the aforementioned benefit, lighting is directly correlated to reducing these negative states among patients. 

7. Improving sleep and circadian rhythm

It may seem strange that the presence of light improves sleep quality, as most prefer sleeping in the dark. However, the light that falls on the retina controls the body’s circadian rhythm, which is responsible for synchronizing the body’s internal clock. Individuals consistently exposed to artificial bright lights have experienced substantial changes in sleep quality. 
 
8. Lessening agitation for dementia patients

Disruptive behavior of patients suffering from dementia is proven to significantly drop for residents that received constant light levels. Studies also show that exposure to bright lights in the morning reduce agitation, specifically for elderly dementia patients. 

9. Decreases length of hospital stay

Lastly, lighting was connected to how long individuals had to remain in healthcare facilities. Studies showed shorter stays for both males and females who underwent treatment in brightly lit rooms.

Despite these additional benefits, the overall advantage of having appropriate lighting in a high-risk work environment such as a hospital is plain to see. No matter the industry, effective lighting means a better working environment. With creating a custom LED lighting design, your business can have greater control, efficiency, and reliability. Our designers can consult with your business on specific elements your hospital needs and then can create a plan that saves money and improves quality.

So, healthcare professionals, when asking how you can better the lives of your staff and patients, take your facility’s lighting plan into consideration; and when you’re ready, we’ll be here to help. 

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(Source: The Center of Health Design and Sib Lighting)

Commercial Lighting's Impact on Customers

Along with saving on energy consumption, adding to employee morale and productivity, and providing additional safety from accidents or criminal activity, adequate commercial lighting directly impacts your customers, and with that – your sales.

Specialized LED lighting designs push quality and efficiency to new heights. Study after study shows how lighting directly correlates with how shoppers perceive your business. Because of this, it is crucial to match your aesthetics to your brand. LED lights serve as the perfect method to finely-tune the atmosphere you desire.

Purchasing Behavior

Your business’ lighting strategy can influence all aspects of a customer’s purchasing behavior. Lighting can draw attention to a product, showcase the quality and features of the product, and even guide the customer to the register.

In a recent study done by Zumtobel, an Austrian lighting

manufacturing company, results show lighting can affect a person’s mood both positively and negatively. Because of this, it becomes incredibly important to match the target customer to your lighting strategy in order to create an appropriate emotional attachment to the brand. The study also showed accurate lighting connected to longer visits and more purchases made. Subject studies also correlated good lighting with cleanliness, quality, and order.

Commercial Lighting Tips

1. Avoid uniformly, high-brightness lighting. Instead, create a favorable, layered contrast of three lighting styles: ambient (general lighting), task (visually-aiding lighting), and accent (showcase lighting). 
2. It’s recommended to illuminate displays to 10x the level of the adjacent general lighting.
3. If you want to sell it, make it look good by correct color rendering. The use of warm colors brings customers a sense of familiarity. In addition, it’s been suggested that individuals purchase more when products are displayed under daylight, which can also be created through color rendering.  
4. Accent lighting can highlight new seasonal products or special offers through installing spotlights.
5. Brighten the areas in which you want to physically lead customers. Furthermore, select vertical lighting vs. horizontal, as this helps customers gain better understanding of the store layout.
6. Shelf lighting! Lower shelf levels encourage customers to linger, so built-in shelf lighting can help seal the deal.

With these tips aside, commercial lighting isn’t a one-size fits all. Knowing the unique temperament of your target audience and the lighting that best serves them can be what determines whether your customers make their way to the register, or to the exit.

If you want to see what lighting strategy will benefit your company, give us a call.

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(Source: Greenbiz, Complete Electrical, Aesthetics, Get Deco, Lighting Equipment Sales, Lumastream, Graybar, Top Co. Indirect)