Identifying Sleep-Disruptive Noise Factors in Healthcare Environments

It is widely recognized that physical environments directly affect human physiological and mental well-being. Noise, a recognized environmental stressor, contributes to poor patient satisfaction and is known to disrupt patient sleep. This study investigated the relationship of sources of noise to sleep disruption in three units of a large urban hospital. A volunteer sample of 61 discharged patients completed a survey asking about the sleep disruptive nature of 33 (25 noise related and 8 non-noise related) environmental factors. The results revealed that a total of 17 factors were found to be sleep-disruptive by at least one-third of the patients (11 noise-related and 6 not associated with noise). Beeping of the IV pump, intercom paging within the room and activities associated with a nurse entering the room were ranked the highest among noise-related factors. Comfort of the bed and nursing/medical interventions were the two factors with most responses in the non-noise category. Based on these findings a set of design recommendations was developed that hospitals might adopt to eliminate the source of a noise, reduce its occurrence, or lessen its volume. Two key design recommendations consist of incorporating all private patient rooms and decentralizing nurses' stations. These conditions hold the potential for reducing the noise generated by staff conversations and excessive traffic by providing all essential elements of care within near proximity of the patient room and eliminating noise generated within the room by the presence and care associated with another patient. Additional recommendations include relatively specific design changes such as replacing sound indicators with light-indicators on medical equipment, reducing staff bedside checks by providing visual access into patient's room from the corridor and using floor finishes with sound absorbing qualities and walls with sound attenuation materials. Design recommendations were developed for each harmful stressor identified by at least one-third of the respondents and were organized by the location of the source (bedside, room, and corridor). Recommendations include a list of possible solutions to prevent or reduce the noise at its source, and also to provide a space capable of preventing the transmission of sound once it is generated. Additional recommendations were made as related to the behavioral/operational factors and non-noise factors such as the patient bed, pillows, temperature and lighting. Overall the study found that noise is a factor which negatively affects patient sleep. The presence of noise can be reduced with a well-informed design approach

The Environmental Analysis Group (TEAG) Collection

https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/edra-archives/1006/thumbnail.jp

Increasing the Quality of Patient Care by Reducing Noise Levels in the Healing Environment

Advances in medical technology have led to an increase in noise levels in hospitals. The Boston VA Healthcare System proposed a project aimed at decreasing noise levels throughout their hospital branches. The design team studied and analyzed noise levels associated with alarms and gained a better understanding of the term alarm fatigue which is an annoyance for visitors, patients and healthcare providers. By also monitoring the noise levels in patient rooms and using software data analysis techniques, we showed that noise levels as a function of location and time of day at the VA hospital exceeded the noise tolerance guidelines by the World Health Organization. Recommendations of new technology and policy to reduce noise levels at the VA hospital were made

Affective Medicine: a review of Affective Computing efforts in Medical Informatics

Background: Affective computing (AC) is concerned with emotional interactions performed with and through computers. It is defined as “computing that relates to, arises from, or deliberately influences emotions”. AC enables investigation and understanding of the relation between human emotions and health as well as application of assistive and useful technologies in the medical domain. Objectives: 1) To review the general state of the art in AC and its applications in medicine, and 2) to establish synergies between the research communities of AC and medical informatics. Methods: Aspects related to the human affective state as a determinant of the human health are discussed, coupled with an illustration of significant AC research and related literature output. Moreover, affective communication channels are described and their range of application fields is explored through illustrative examples. Results: The presented conferences, European research projects and research publications illustrate the recent increase of interest in the AC area by the medical community. Tele-home healthcare, AmI, ubiquitous monitoring, e-learning and virtual communities with emotionally expressive characters for elderly or impaired people are few areas where the potential of AC has been realized and applications have emerged. Conclusions: A number of gaps can potentially be overcome through the synergy of AC and medical informatics. The application of AC technologies parallels the advancement of the existing state of the art and the introduction of new methods. The amount of work and projects reviewed in this paper witness an ambitious and optimistic synergetic future of the affective medicine field

Taking a human factors systems approach to slip, trips and falls risks in care environments

Taking a human factors systems approach to slip, trips and falls risks in care environment

Noise Reduction and Control in Hospital Environment: Design of the NeoNoise Project

The “NeoNoise Project: Integrated Approach to Minimize Sound Pressure Levels in Neonatal Intensive Care Units” is being conducted by the Research Group on Occupational and Environmental Health of the Research Center on Health and Environment in neonatal intensive care units, since exposure to sound pressure levels in these spaces has been recognized as a factor that influences the quality and well‐being of the occupants (workers and others), as well as the recovery of premature infants who are hospitalized. This work reports the rationale and the design of the NeoNoise project as well as the methods used for data collection. A brief review on the results published and available for the scientific community is also made. In general, NeoNoise project intends to make an integration of all relevant factors, with the intention of presenting a guiding document to change the working practices and occupant\u27s behaviors. So far, this study provided data on sound pressure levels by objective and subjective approaches, as well as information about the exposure factors and sensitivity of the occupants to noise

Noise environments in nursing homes : an overview of the literature and a case study in Flanders with quantitative and qualitative methods

As noise is a basic contributor to the evaluation of an environment, the indoor environment of a nursing home (where residents are provided with 24-hour functional support and care) is studied with this focus. General research results, as indicated from a literature review, are limited. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, five nursing homes in Flanders were studied before and after acoustic interventions. Sound levels were measured in individual bedrooms, living rooms and corridors to obtain the typical levels during a day. Acoustic intra-room performance parameters (reverberation time) and inter-room performance parameters (airborne noise insulation level and impact noise insulation level) were measured and compared with Belgian target values. The post operam measurements indicated the potential of the acoustic interventions (use of acoustic curtains, wall and ceiling panels, ventilation grills, floating floors) to improve the building performance and the acoustic climate. From a qualitative viewpoint, the thematic analysis of staff response to the acoustic interventions indicated direct positive outcomes (e.g., more pleasant, quieter indoor soundscapes) with both positive and negative outcomes from perceived indirect effects (i.e., non-acoustic factors)