The sound environment impacts our well-being. In healthcare, patients and staff are seen to both feel and do better in an environment with ‘good’, sound-absorbing acoustics. As opposed to being in surroundings with sound-reflecting, or ‘bad’, acoustics. Healthcare acoustics Sound-reflecting vs. sound-absorbing acoustics Research comparing the impact of sound-reflecting and sound-absorbing acoustics on healthcare staff and […]
hospital noise
Treating critically ill infants in a sound way
Imagine having a baby, or remember when you had yours. One of your strongest wishes (if not the strongest) was probably for the baby to be healthy, and for the pregnancy to be ‘normal’. But what if, instead of having a full-term, healthy baby on your chest, you find yourself in a high-tech Neonatal Intensive […]
Healing environments – Care for Sound
Care for Sound symposium on healing, healthcare and it´s relation to sound! Healing environments can greatly impact a patient’s hospital stay Here are two examples from the UK Patient Opinion website: “There were no doors only curtains, the lady next to me coughed all night and the two patients next to her were snoring. The […]
Hospital sound environments – we can make them sound better!
Sound environments – hospitals are noisy Often very noisy. Hardly ever even close to the maximum limit of 35 dB set by the World Health Organization (WHO) that would be considered a healing sound environment. Both patients and staff can be adversely affected by this noisy sound environment. The growing number of technological devices, an […]
Why vertical acoustics matter in Healthcare
Vertical acoustics an important asset in healthcare National standards in the Healthcare are lacking In many countries, national standards, regulations, and guidelines are lacking in the healthcare segment. One could therefore say that in many cases building hospitals, elderly care homes, and psychiatric wards is the ‘wild west’ regarding acoustics. We are lucky when new […]
Noise and premature babies
Premature babies vulnerable “Premature babies, with their growing brains, are especially sensitive to loud noises. In spite of this, neonatal units often generate a great deal of loud noise from equipment, alarms, and adult voices. And incubator vibrates like a drum, reinforcing sounds from outside,” explains Dr. Johannes Van den Berg, a neonatal nursing specialist. […]
Healing environment in The Meander Medical Centre
The Meander Medical Centre in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, was built entirely according to healing environment principles. The recently opened Meander Medical Centre in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, was built entirely according to these principles. The layout and design of this hospital are intended to facilitate much-needed rest and promote the recovery process. At a recent seminar […]
Healing in the Jungle
The Jungle Happiness is a great healer. We want the stay in a hospital to be a fun and exciting experience for the kids,” explains Tomas Gedda, Head of fundraising at the Foundation for Queen Silvia Children’s Hospital in Gothenburg. Four years have now passed since Tomas Gedda embarked on the successful healing jungle rooms […]
What it sounds like to be an acute patient
Acute patients The healthcare world is filled with noise; alarms, people chatting, cleaners pushing carts and much more. It becomes so familiar that staff doesn’t even think about it, repressing it becomes second nature. So it may be easy to forget that the patient is probably having a completely different experience. Especially an acute patient […]
Serene low-risk births in Birmingham
Low-risk “Given the difficulty of communicating with some of our patients, it was important to create an environment where they could feel safe and supported by our midwives,” says Paul Scott, capital projects manager at the City Hospital in Birmingham. The Serenity Midwifery Birth Centre provides low-risk women with a tranquil, state-of-the-art place to give birth. “It was an […]
