What defines a high-performance healing environment?

A high-performance healing environment is more than, the “creation of an environment that is not just verbalized, but actually lived an optimal healing environment for physicians, employees and patients where care and nurturing attitudes are directed toward all of the players will result in an environment where the patients will thrive” (Jacobs, 2008, para 4). High performance environments go beyond saving energy. They take into account a wide assortment of building components which yields an efficient environment to make its occupants healthier, safer, happier and more productive. By using tools, such as NHS Environmental Assessment Tool (NEAT), A Staff and Patient Environment Calibration Tool (ASPECT), and other an organization can begin defining a high performance environment. Guenther & Vittori (2008), “The expanding portfolio of green building tools both in the US and abroad catalyze, reinforce, and extend the breadth and rigor of sustainable healthcare design, construction, and operations” (p. 224).
Guenther, R., & Vittori, G., (2008). Sustainable health care architecture. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Jacobs, N., (2008). Creating an optimal healing environment. Retrieve from http://www.hospitalimpact.org/index.php/2008/12/17/p922

Sustainable design tools, principles and policies include statements from the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) and the Green Guide for Healthcare Construction (pg. 192 and 194). Describe how these tools could be utilized to develop key performance metrics in facility design.
Usually performance measures are seen as a means of quantifying efficiency and effectiveness of action. “Designing a performance measure, however, involves much more than simply specifying a robust formula” (Neely, Richards, Mills, Platts & Bourne, 1997, p. 1131). The principles of ASHE and the Green Guide for Healthcare Construction emphasize the magnitude of safeguarding health. The goal of assessment tools is to help the user better understand how a jurisdiction’s current codes/ordinances and permitting process might allow or