https://research.chalmers.se/publication/504731/file/504731_Fulltext.pdf

Psychiatric ward design can reduce aggressive behavior

Exploring the effect of sound and music on health in hospital settings: A narrative review

An investigation examined the structured scientific evidence on healthcare facilities (the healing built environment – HBE) and its impact on patients’ health outcomes under a holistic conceptual evaluative framework. The integrative review considered 127 papers (of which 59 were review papers). It found there was no adequate framework that could integrate existing research findings holistically. Such a holistic framework needs to demonstrate the cumulative and interactive effects of various HBE characteristics on patients’ health outcomes and wellbeing. An environment–occupant–health (E-O-H) framework is proposed, taking a holistic perspective to identify and evaluate different HBE characteristics. The E-O-H framework should support future research by (1) identifying the HBE characteristics that affect health outcomes; (2) defining appropriate future research designs; and (3) understanding the need for holistic analysis of the integrated effects of diverse HBE characteristics on health outcomes.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09613218.2017.1411130

Healing built-environment effects on health outcomes: environment–occupant–health framework

Managing alarm fatigue in cardiac care

Noise in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) is gaining increasing attention as a significant source of stress and fatigue for nursing staff. Extensive research indicates that hospital noise also has negative impact on patients. The objective of this study was to analyze noise variations as experienced by both nursing staff and patients, to gain a better understanding of noise levels and frequencies observed in ICU settings over extended (week-long) durations, and to implement a low cost behavior modification program to reduce noise. The results of our study indicate that behavioral modification alone is not adequate to control excessive noise. There is a need for further research involving the supportive involvement by clinicians, ICU staff, along with effective medical device alarm management, and continuous process improvement methods.

/pdf/reducing-hospital-icu-noise-a-behavior-based-approach-2zqbd738fx.pdf

Reducing hospital ICU noise: a behavior-based approach.

Objective:�Toreviewtheepidemiologyofnoisepollu- tioninhospitalsanditseffectsonpatients. •� Methods:�Reviewoftheliterature. •� Results:� Usingacademicsearchenginessuchas� PubMed,� JSTOR,� andJASA,� aswellascommon� internetsearchengines,� 36� paperswereselected� thatfocusonnoiseasitrelatestopatientsleepdistur- bances,�cardiovascularresponse,�lengthofhospital� stay,�painmanagement,�woundhealing,�andphysio- logicalreactions.�Resultsgenerallyshowthepotential� fornegativephysiologicaleffectwhenpatientsareex- posedtonoise;�however,�conflictingstudiesarealso� reported.�Thisreviewattemptstodefinetheresearch� chaininthecollectedarticlesbydeterminingwhich� acousticcharacteristicswereexamined,�whattypeof� acousticintervention�(ifany)�wasused,�andwhatthe� patientoutcomeswere.��

Noise pollution in hospitals: Impact on patients

In hospitals, background noise has been shown to be problematic, not only for the patients but also for the staff. With respect to staff members, perceived stress and psychosocial factors can be affected negatively by noise. One particular factor that noise can inhibit is effective speech communication. Speech communication is essential for functions such as evaluation, admittance and treatment of patients. This paper will discuss results from measurements made in several different hospital units where traditional speech intelligibility metrics were analyzed. Additionally, newer analysis techniques such as Noise Occurrence Rates were investigated for their potential usefulness in speech intelligibility applications. Preliminary results show that in general, the hospital units show “poor” to “marginal” Speech Intelligibility (SII) qualitative scores. The results of this study help to better explain how speech is understood in various locations within the hospitals and can aid in hospital designs that support speech communication.

Speech intelligibility in hospitals

Previous studies indicate that the sound environments normally present at hospitals in general and intensive care units in particular, may pose a risk for prolonged patient recovery and for the personnel, disruption of concentration, increased tiredness and possibly more errors. As part of a larger study of the effects of the sound environment in intensive care units (ICU), personnel response was studied using a work environment questionnaire. The individual noise exposure was measured using noise dosimeters. In total 51 personnel answered the questionnaire. Of those, 44% reported to be rather, very or extremely annoyed by the noise in the ICU. The most frequently reported symptom was tiredness that occurred at least some time every week among 53% of the respondents. Noise annoyance was correlated to the symptom factors "auditory fatigue" and "mental fatigue". The results will be discussed in relation to response from other personnel groups of similar distribution of gender, education and age from primary health care, offices and pre-schools. (Less)

Personnel response in intensive care units

Hospital noise and occupant response

Hospital noise levels remain well above World Health Organization guidelines. One of the main difficulties in treating hospital noise is the inability to use conventional sound absorption techniques. In intensive care units, the hospital does not allow any materials that can harbor bacteria or produce a high level of dust. This criterion prohibits conventional drop ceilings and conventional sound absorbing panels and carpet. Based on our previous panel design [M. MacLeod et al., “Weinberg 5C: A case study in hospital noise control, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 119, 3327 (2006)] a lower cost version of our hospital noise panels was implemented by replacing the wrapping with DuPont™ Tyvek©. The lowered cost makes implementation of these new panels more feasible for hospitals. In this talk, it will be shown that this new implementation produces comparable results to the original panel design. The performance of a modified DL2 measurement will be investigated as a new way to characterize hospital noise.

Timothy Hsu

Papers

Noise pollution in hospitals: Impact on patients

Speech intelligibility in hospitals

Personnel response in intensive care units

Hospital noise and occupant response

Further studies in hospital noise control at the Johns Hopkins Hospital: Part 1.