Data for this study were primarily obtained from the USGBC website. LEED scorecards for certified hospitals have been
reviewed to assess which credits hospitals and healthcare facilities received during certification. There were a total of 127 certified hospitals on the USGBC website with their scorecards available for analysis. 19 of those hospitals were under the
“Healthcare” category, 81 hospitals were classified under the “New Construction” category, and 27 of them were classified under
various other categories. Overall, 100 hospitals (19 from Healthcare category and 81 from New Construction category) have
been studied in detail and their scorecards have been analyzed considering specific selected criteria.
A scorecard is attributed to each certified hospital or healthcare facility. As the scorecard of every hospital is publicly
available, the total scores received were analyzed. In line with the goal of the study however, the most relevant credits in each
category have been further analyzed. As a result, hospitals have been evaluated in two cases. First, as a green building according
to their total score which has been provided by USGBC, and second as a green healthcare environment which has been provided
by this study according to their performance in healthcare specific credits.
To study 19 hospitals under Healthcare category, credits under the healthcare scorecard that were relevant to the wellbeing of
patients were selected to evaluate the hospital’s effort in specific healthcare area. However, as most of the green hospitals were
certified under the New Construction category in previous years rather than under Healthcare, it was deemed necessary to
identify credits relevant to patient wellbeing in other scorecards as well. LEED credits chosen for the analysis from each of the
respective rating systems were presented in Table 4.