Room acoustic design, measurement, and simulation techniques to reduce hospital noises within patients' environment

Abstract

Hospitalized patients and clinical staff identify noise as a major stressor. Environmental hospital noise raises ambient noise levels significantly above ideal levels. Options to reduce hospital noise include methods to modify noise, such as closing doors, adjusting hospital equipment, hospital personnel behaviors, and clinical alarms such as wireless communication devices for staff and future “smart” algorithms for patient-specific alarm thresholds. This study utilizes the beamforming techniques to localize and examines basic characteristic of sound field through measurements and simulation of noise in an environment that affects the patient’s audio perception, and collects evidence for impact of noise intensity on patient hearing toward reduction of the noise sources in hospital rooms. The profiles of noise levels for their time and frequency domain as being reflected, absorbed, or refracted within typical patient’s room are determined. The difference in applications of various architectural solutions to mitigate noise in hospitals within patient environment is estimated. The results contribute toward architectural room acoustic design solution(s) to reduce acoustic disruption of sleep or rest with adequate information and reproducible data to accelerate design decision-making process while providing practical solutions such as geometric modification to room architectural elements as compared to theoretical offerings by the research community.