Patient Satisfaction and Benefits of Music Therapy Services to Manage Stress and Pain in the Hospital Emergency Department.

Abstract

The goal of the study was to gather data about patient satisfaction with and benefit from music therapy (MT) services to inform development of a model of MT service in emergency departments (EDs). The objectives were to compare patient satisfaction scores on pain control, ED recommendation, and staff care of ED patients who received MT with patients who did not receive MT services; to examine the benefit of MT services to manage ED patients' stress and pain; and to gather information about staff members' perceptions about MT services for ED patients. Over 1,500 patients engaged in MT with a board-certified music therapist during the 3-year term of the study. Treatment included music-assisted relaxation, therapeutic listening/musical requests, musical diversion, song writing, and therapeutic singing. Using items from the Press Ganey ED Survey to measure patient satisfaction of 90 MT patients who received and responded to the survey with a matched control group, no statistically significant differences in patient satisfaction were found. Significant improvements were seen in both stress and pain for MT patients, and the benefit of MT in procedural support was explored. A staff questionnaire revealed that 92% of respondents would be likely to recommend MT sessions for future patients, and 80% indicated that the music therapist's practice improved their caregiving experience. All MT patients indicated that they would request future MT in the ED. The study provides important information for the development of MT programming in hospital EDs.