Corridors in the healthcare sector are often also work rooms where patient care and ward management tasks are performed. Meals, and also medicine and hygiene items, are distributed. Hence, lighting requirements for corridors in hospitals (200 lx) exceed the usual lighting requirements for traffic routes (100 lx) (see also chapter "Traffic zones"). This also accommodates needs of elderly, ill and infirm people for increased safety in corridors and staircases via improved lighting.
Corridors, staircases, day rooms
To facilitate safe walking, corridors and staircases must be illuminated in a way that eliminates excessive luminance differences at passages between rooms with different lighting during the day as well as at night. The lighting level of adjacent rooms should not exceed 1: 10, ideally it should be 1: 3. An elevated lighting level (300 lx) is therefore recommended for corridors in the surgical tract, also for hygiene reasons.
For multi-use corridors, illuminance uniformity must be 0,60 at the height of the visual task (e.g. due to service trolleys), and 0,40 for all other corridors by both day and night at floor level. According to EN 12464-1, the walls (primary surfaces) in corridors and staircases should be illuminated at a minimum of 75 lx, and the ceiling at a minimum of 50 lx (with minimum uniformity of 0,10 for both).
During the night, illuminance in corridors can be lowered (and must be lowered in wards), however only in a way that preserves illuminance uniformity at 0,4, which is vital to safety on traffic routes.
In corridors where patients are moved while in a reclined position, lamps should be shielded from view as far as possible, and at the least, the luminance levels observed by these patients should be reduced, since rhythmic luminance impulses can trigger epileptic seizures in patients with certain conditions. Good lighting solutions are composed of direct-indirect-distribution luminaires on the ceiling or walls, or of direct-distribution ceiling luminaires at the edge of the corridor ceiling.
In common areas, which are also meeting points for patients and relatives, lighting should provide a comfortable atmosphere on top of good visual conditions. If the lighting is adjusted in terms of level and light colour using e.g. a scene controller, a natural light ambience is created even in parts of buildings with insufficient daylight supply. Additional lighting installations of this type have a calming effect on people and help eliminate fear and insecurity (further information can be found in chapter "Light and non-visual effects").