It seems most hospitals have that particular shade of light ‘hospital green’ or blue. Is there are a medical or scientific reason these colours are chosen?
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Originally green was chosen (instead of the previously used bright white) to reduce glare in the operating room. It can be distracting and very fatiguing to the eyes when there many bright things in your peripheral vision while you’re trying to focus on the precision work you’re doing in a dark hole in someone’s body. You generally want the area you’re focused on to be the brightest thing in your vision (humans are hardwired to look at bright objects), and the insides of humans are generally kinda dark. For this purpose, neutral 18% grey would probably be best, but some might find that dull and depressing.
[This article](https://bcmj.org/blog/green-most-suitable-color-hospital-textiles) talks about colour choice from a few theoretical perspectives.
[This page](https://www.bfwinc.com/surgery-lighting-guide/) talks about some practicalities of lighting, and has a nice (if dated) photo of an operating room that I wish I had the chance to work in (neutral non-bright surfaces).
[This research paper](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1477153520903355) studied the impact of operating room lighting brightness and found a benefit (decreased fatigue and possibly improved patient safety) with different levels of light for specific areas of the OR (basically brightest on the operating table, less bright around the table, and less bright still everywhere else). Though not assessed by this study, the colour and reflectivity of the OR environment could contribute or impact these findings.
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