Insights & Solutions

As part of the noise toolbox, in this issue brief you will learn about how excessive noise can negatively impact patients and staff in the hospital environment, ways to improve patients’ perception of sound, and low-cost, medium-cost, and high-cost design strategies that can reduce noise.

From heightened anxiety and stress, to medical errors, to staff burnout, to HIPAA violations, that hospital noise is pandemic is well known. Ongoing efforts to reduce noise in hospitals, including the “quiet at night” campaigns, have limited success due to a misunderstanding regarding the characteristics of a restful environment. The auditory environment is the least controllable and the most pervasive, involving communications, technology, family dialogue, sounds of recovery and sounds of disease. This webinar provides both insights and frameworks for creating a healing, restful environment.

HCAHPS scores related to noise in the hospital environment are typically among the lowest. Acoustic intervention packages implemented by healthcare organizations are often a combination of built environment and operational measures.  

The following are compiled from research literature, case studies, interviews, and other materials to provide an overview on the topic of noise.  

This tool provides healthcare designers and professionals with ideas on how to address the issue of noise in facility design.

The issue of excessive noise in healthcare facilities is indeed complicated. Patients need a calm, peaceful environment in which to heal, and loud noises certainly are at odds with that concept. While architectural and design choices can be made to lower the general noise level -- high-performance sound-absorbing materials in floors, ceilings, and walls are examples -- perhaps the most important and effective step a healthcare organization can take is to create a “culture of quiet” among its staff on all levels.

For many years, carpet was considered a no-no for use in most hospital settings beyond waiting areas. The most oft-cited reason was cleanability, as well as a perceived added difficulty for caregivers pushing carts and other wheeled equipment.

However, with the growing awareness of the noise issue in hospitals—including the potential financial repercussions, based on the HCAHPS system and the reimbursements tied to it—carpet is getting a second look in some facilities looking to decrease overall noise levels.