Healthcare Acoustics: Do you care about sound in healthcare design?

Hospital Noise Can Be Costly-

A 2013 benchmarking study by the Beryl Institute^[1] reports that noise reduction is the highest priority for improving patient experience in hospitals. This disturbing proclamation revolves around patients consistently giving low marks to acoustics on surveys administered by the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS). We’d like to think the primary motivator for prioritizing noise reduction is an improvement in the quality of healthcare. And yet, the old adage “follow the money” comes to mind. The 2005 Deficit Reduction Act authorizes withholding of some portion of hospital reimbursements for care of Medicare patients based in part on the HCAHPS survey results. So… acoustical issues equate to money issues, at least for American hospitals.

Hospital Noise Affects Patients & Medical Staff Alike-

The degree to which acoustics continues to be overlooked in healthcare design is surprising. Excessive noise in hospitals not only raises stress levels of patients, but also for the medical staff. In fact, the impetus for this blog was an article in the Mumbai Mirror citing HVAC noise as a contributing factor in delaying the opening of a new Emergency Medical Services (EMS) ward at KEM Hospital.^[2] One line in the article tells the whole story, “…doctors said there was no way they could perform operations and complex procedures in the ward till the noise problem is fixed.” My first thought was, “This problem could have been avoided altogether (and probably at lower cost) if the design team had included a qualified acoustical consultant.”

Educate Yourself on Healthcare Acoustics-

Anyone wanting to “bone-up” on healthcare acoustics can find plenty of readily available information. Facilities Guidelines Institute (FGI) cites the de facto standard for healthcare acoustics – Sound & Vibration: Design Guidelines for Health Care Facilities.^[3,4] Various other resources are available to further inform the design industry about relevant acoustical issues in healthcare design. An excellent overview of the issues and the current status of healthcare acoustical design came out in the Aug. 2014 issue of Sound & Vibration Magazine.^[5] This article includes quite a few additional references for the interested reader.

Below, we have assembled several more resources starting with a link to a bulletin about the Care for Sound Symposium^[6] held Oct. 17^th in Lund, Sweden. The bulletin has links to papers that were presented and actual video files of presentations that are quite informative. We’ve included links to two articles that are relevant to patient room acoustics. One is on patient privacy citing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).^[7] The other explains how use of electronic sound masking in patient rooms can reduce noise disturbances.^[8] Finally, we’ve included links to three articles addressing alarm fatigue^[9-11] in hospitals.

**Get Help… We Care about the Sound of Healthcare-**

The unfortunate truth is that design professionals have enough to do in terms of staying current in their respective disciplines whether they are architects, structural engineers, interior designers, MEP engineers or IT consultants. There is little time or motivation to learn about acoustics, despite the fact that healthcare acoustics may be largely determined by the design work of these disciplines. We hope you will at least make time to gain an awareness of the critical issues using the resources provided here. Then… don’t hesitate to get qualified help on your next project.