Benchmark measurements of noise, reverberation time, and an estimate of speech intelligibility in a representative operating room at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio

Abstract

Nationwide Children's Hospital was interested in understanding speech communications: in their operating rooms and between the parents/child and the doctor in pre-operative rooms. Long-term hearing loss of the staff was of secondary interest. Before a comprehensive project was proposed, data in a single OR to gain some experience was conducted. A SLM was programmed to measure the following during 15 s intervals: overall A-weighted equivalent energy sound level, A-weighted equivalent energy sound level in octave bands from 16 to 16 kHz, and peak un-weighted level during the interval. Reverberation was also measured by an impulsive method. Measurements were made for 23 consecutive hours. The data were downloaded for analysis. It was concluded that (1) adding some absorption around the top of the walls would improve SI, (2) good SI is only possible with a high vocal effort, and (3) long term hearing loss is very unlikely. Follow up topics before a comprehensive project is proposed were (1) try other reverberation methods, (2) study more rooms while a variety of surgical procedures are performed, (3) identify the source and duration of peaks levels, and (4) investigate other measures of SI.