“When I really want to think I go to the bathroom”

Reported live from Ecophon 5th International Acousticians’ Seminar

James West of Johns Hopkins University (abstract) entered the stage to bring focus to the problem of noise in hospitals. In this interview with him, he says that “we’d better be paying more attention to noise in hospitals”.

He’s met people that have said “when I really want to think I go to the bathroom” because that’s the only place where it is quiet. Others tell him that they need to go home to log data.

The problem has been there for a long time. Certainly some professionals have known about it. But it hasn’t been known widely enough, thinks West. With his team he is now trying to identify the noise sources. “For the most part it’s people communicating”, says James West.

Listen to the interview.

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