Healthscapes: the role of the facility and physical environment on consumer attitudes, satisfaction, quality assessments, and behaviors.

The role of the health care physical or tangible environment, including the facility, is essentially an unstudied area. This article identifies and defines components of "atmospherics" concerning health care (Healthscapes), to assess their strengths and predictiveness in the relationship between patient and other customer outcomes, satisfaction, quality assessments, intention to return, and willingness to recommend a health care provider to others and to propose much needed research in the area.