Healthcare acoustics on the agenda
What a privilege to attend ICA this year. Not only were we invited to a concert in the cathedral of Aachen but in the healthcare acoustics session, we had the opportunity to explore research from all over the world. Including 3 American papers on both noise reduction in neonatal care, cognitive effects on staff, and hospital noise research in general. (Find more about the session here).
Next steps in hospital research
Ilene Busch-Vishniac (featured image) was coming from Baltimore and her paper ‘Next steps in hospital noise research’ shed light on the last 15 years of work in the field together with a summary of the current state of knowledge of hospital noise and its impact.
Ilene Busch-Vishniac discussed WHY we need to be interested in the impact of noise in hospitals. Some of the reasons mentioned were both of human and economic character; almost everyone spends time in a hospital or healthcare facility at some point in their adult life. Whether as a patient, visitor, or staff member – and noise is among the top complaints about hospitals all over the world.
Healthcare is the fastest-growing sector
Also, healthcare is one of the fastest-growing labor sectors in the world together with the fact that the sector typically accounts for 10% of the labor force of a country and approximately 10% of a country’s gross domestic product.
Healthcare acoustics challenges
Ilene Busch-Vishniac also discussed the typical acoustic challenges in healthcare. Hospitals often have hard sound reflective surfaces because of a desire and tradition to use materials that can easily and frequently be cleaned and disinfected. And this together with the fact that hospitals today work around the clock – where staff, patients, visitors, and equipment are constantly moving creates non-stationary sources of noise.
Ilene Busch-Vishniac presented research showing how sound levels in hospitals have been increasing during the last 70 years – due to some of the reasons mentioned above.
Ilene also discussed how the acoustic challenges in healthcare and hospitals lead to bad speech intelligibility:
Finally, some of Ilene Busch-Vishniac’s conclusions were:
- There is a growing body of research on hospital noise but there is much still to be learned.
- Key areas of study include speech intelligibility and soundscape analyses in hospitals.
- Ideally, we need to craft a means of researching impacts of hospital soundscapes on medical outcomes and staff stress.
Find some of Ilene’s previous work here – and read the conference abstract here.
