Changing The Hospital Soundscape

September 11, 2016 in Daily Bulletin

Lauren Alix Brown wrote about hospitals and the battle for quiet:

  • Between beeping monitors, shuffling orderlies, and moaning patients, hospitals are not known for their silence.
  • And it’s getting worse. According to one study noise levels at some hospitals are 100 decibels– as loud as a chainsaw.
  • This is a problem since the hospital environment doesn’t encourage sleep – which is crucial to healing.
  • The beeping machines could be replaced with wearables that monitor vitals and automatically inform hospital staff if something is going wrong.
  • Other sounds could be blocked by the simple act of closing doors to patient rooms – at the moment hospital staff like to keep them upon so they can keep an eye on everybody.
  • Some are looking into the kinds of ambient music that can be played to promote healing.

Read more about the battle to hush hospitals here.

Source: Quartz