The process of designing a healthcare facility is being defined by many various determinants. This paper describes the legal guidelines of defining such spaces in Poland, both in historical and current legal obligations contexts. Architecture of the contemporary healthcare facilities by its function is being regulated by many individual legal acts. Influential impact of these formal and legal determinants may be noticed within all stages of a medical facility lifecycle, specifically both during design and maintenance stages. Historical studies clearly reveals the hazards of over-regulation while the confrontation of polish legal regulations with foreign systems based on sets of standards and good-practice manuals reveals a low effectiveness of polish legal system, simultaneously stating a recommendation for a thorough reconstruction of these regulations in Poland. Results of presented studies are stating the need for creating a polish, interdisciplinary team, with a main goal of creating a set of design standards for healthcare architecture.