Ecophon Acoustic Bulletin
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March 25, 2013
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March 21, 2013
Being ill in the sound intensive ICU
The conception that critically ill patients are too ill to reflect on their sound environment in the intensive care unit needs to be revised. This was one of the conclusions Swedish researchers made in a qualitative study on patient experiences of their stay in intensive care.
October 4, 2012
Common hospital sounds affect patients' sleep and heart rates
An American study has looked more closely at the effects of typical hospital sounds on sleep. Different hospital sounds were played at sound levels varying from 40 dB to 70 dB and under different sleep phases. The probability of arousal varied with sound type, sound level and sleep phase.
Continue reading "Common hospital sounds affect patients' sleep and heart rates" »
September 29, 2012
CleanMed conference on sustainable healthcare -
26-28 September 2012 Healthcare without Harm organised CleanMed – creating healing environments – conference on sustainable healthcare. The conference gathered healthcare providers, sustainability organisations and medical and building material suppliers to healthcare to discuss and share successful initiatives in from many different perspectives. The topics included such diverse presentations from waste water management to how to communicate internally to engage and get buy-in for sustainability efforts in the organisation.
Continue reading "CleanMed conference on sustainable healthcare - " »
July 3, 2012
Sleep in the ICU – review of current knowledge
A new article on the current knowledge of sleep disturbances in the ICU was featured in the latest issue of Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavia. Sleep disturbances in the ICU environment is a significant problem and has many underlying causes - but is a difficult phenomenon to observe due to the physical status of the patient group. This study aimed to describe what research has given in terms of knowledge so far, and then focus on causes and keys for handling these critically ill patients.
Continue reading "Sleep in the ICU – review of current knowledge" »
June 27, 2012
Mapping of the sound environment of an ICU room – and patient perceptions
A newly published study from Sweden describes the audible atmosphere of an intensive care unit patient room over a 24hour period. The study aimed to investigate sound level data and compare patient recollection of the sound environment during the stay.
Continue reading "Mapping of the sound environment of an ICU room – and patient perceptions" »
April 23, 2012
Award winning ICU design 2011
The Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) has awarded the prestigious ICU Design Award to the University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht and the Amsterdam firm of Valtos Architects for their implementation of the Intensive Care Department at UMC Utrecht.
Click the image to watch the video.
December 20, 2011
Communication most common activity in emergency department
An observational study on staff multitasking and activities at two emergency departments in Sweden shows that clinical staff spend up to 42% of time on information exchange, most of which is face-to-face. This information exchange was also the activity that was most multitasked with other activities.
Continue reading "Communication most common activity in emergency department" »
May 12, 2011
conference on future hopsitals and healthcare buildings
From May 10-12 many are participating at the conference on future hospitals and other healthcare premises in Copenhagen.
Ecophon is also participating and active on twitter about what's hot and what's not. Apart from workshops, debates and study visits, the participants will have an opportunity to listen to a wide range of lectures perfomed by amongst others:
- Dr. Michael Phiri, Sheffield University Architecture (UK)
- Professor Jose M Martin-Moreno and Dr Hans Kluge WHO
- Marte Lauvsnes, Hospital Planner, SINTEF (Norge)
- Phil Nedin, Leader of Global Health Care Business, Arup (UK)
- Sylvia Leydecker, 100% Interior (Germany)
- Kunibert Lennerts, Professor, University of Karlsruhe, (Germany)
- Ivar Myrstad, Koordinator, St. Olavs Hospital (Norway)
- Grant R. Mills, Loughborough University (UK)
More infor can be found on the conference website
April 7, 2011
ICU Staff become more relaxed
Foto: Ylva Carlqvist Warnborg
"Staff really cool down in here. The different light, the muffled sound and the nice colors in the room affect everyone who stays here, "says ICU nurse Ann-Louise Smith.
Ann-Louise works as ICU nurse at at Södra Älvborgs Hospital, where one of the ICU rooms is especially designed to create a better environment for both patients, relatives and staff.
Swedish radio recently interviewed her and Sepideh Olausson, a graduate students at the Department of Health Sciences at the University College of Borås who is involved in an ongoing research project on how staff and patients are experiencing the intensive care room.
Some of the results sofar are being discussed and the reactions are positive.
Ann-Louise explains among others how the sound environment is being perceived...
March 29, 2011
Design – for the eye and the ear
Photo: Gabriella Wachtmeister
Imagine being at the dentist. You are lying down, staring at the ceiling and are surrounded by strange noise from the equipment. Your heart is beating faster. A visit at the dentist is often something you just want to be over with. To help their patients relax, a dentist practice in Sweden wanted something that could, in a positive way, distract and occupy the patient’s mind.
March 24, 2011
Too noisy to sleep? Let the hospital know.
Night time noise can be devastating for the recovery during a hospital stay. Through it’s Shhh (Silent Hospitals Help Healing) Committee, the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix is making a conscious effort to improve the sound situation in the hospital by involving the patients. By sending “noise alerts” in real-time via the in-room-television, the patient notifies the surrounding staff when sound levels become unacceptable, and the hospital can immediately take action to reduce the noise.
Continue reading "Too noisy to sleep? Let the hospital know." »
November 29, 2010
Design as a medicine in an ICU
Can the design of a room lead to quicker recovery?
That is what is being investigated in a project at an ICU at Södra Älvsborgs hospital in Borås, Sweden.
The design of the room includes the use of soft colors, the sound environment is being controlled by acoustic ceilings and the light can be adjusted to the hours of the day.
Ecophon arranged the ceilings and WSP, made acoustic measurements (according to Room Acoustic Comfort™). Contact Ecophon for more info on the measurements.
October 5, 2010
A Busy – but quiet – kitchen
Architect Jürgen Busack was convinced that he could create a more humane working environent in the catering kitchen at Rickling psychiatric hospital, north of Hamburg, by tackling room acoustics seriously.
“The noise that often dominates kitchen environments shocked me when I visited catering establishments, it’s an unreasonable noise level for employees. Effective acoustic ceilings and sound absorbers made a big difference to the acoustic environment in the central kitchen in Rickling”, he says with conviction.
Read the entire article here (pdf-file)
September 30, 2010
Better acoustic comfort in new operating theatres
Up until now sound-reflecting, hard surface materials have often been used in operating theatres for hygiene reasons. The backside of this is that the hard surfaces often aggravate disturbing noise. Hygiene is always of utmost importance in an operating theatre, so does it mean we have to ignore the acoustics in the room and it’s benefits to the quality of care? No, with Ecophon Hygiene systems good acoustic performance is successfully combined with high cleanability properties.
A recent example from Varberg hospital in Sweden can inspire us all.
Continue reading "Better acoustic comfort in new operating theatres" »
March 25, 2010
The ICU patient room - a healing environment (new study)
This year will be the start of a doctoral study to be performed at an ICU department at Södra Älvsborgs Sjukhus in Borås, Sweden.
The aim of the project is to study if a holistically designed patient room in a general intensive care unit affects (supports well-being of) the occupants compared to a traditional ICU patient room. The contribution of the sound envrionment will be among the key factors to be studied.
The project is funded by Sahlgrenska Academy, at Gothenburg University and collaborates with the Institute of Architecture at Chalmers University.
Continue reading "The ICU patient room - a healing environment (new study)" »
December 15, 2009
A better sound environment made the hospital staff more satisfied
At a hospital in the South of Sweden, a new meeting/lunch room was built for the staff at the emergency medical unit. When the staff used the room, they were not satisfied with the acoustics. A study was performed to evaluate how the room acoustic environment could be improved.
The relatively small acoustic intervention resulted in a lower sound pressure level and better speech intelligibility. It also resulted in a big change in how the staff perceives the sound environment.
Continue reading "A better sound environment made the hospital staff more satisfied" »
September 29, 2009
Acoustics at Healthcare conference
Approximately 60 people attended the Ecophon Healthcare Conference on 9th September 2009 at The King’s Fund HO in London. Host for the day, Anthony Thomas, concept developer at Ecophon UK, brought together an appealing range of topics specifically aiming to support good design of our Healthcare premises.
Prominent speakers were a.o.
- Richard Mazuch of Nightingale & Associes
- Prof. Brian Duerden of the Department of Health
- Adrian Popplewell of Ramboll Acoustics
Please read further for the summary and the presentations
September 14, 2009
The Sound guide - a support to design well-functioning hospitals
Lars Johansson, functional planner at Locum
As a property developer, it's important to be as clear as possible when defining your room acoustic requirements. With this in mind, Locum and Ecophon have developed a "Sound Guide" to achieve a good acoustic outcome in healthcare buildings.
Lars Johansson, functional planner at Locum who is involved in developing the Sound guide, says: “The Sound guide is a useful tool for us when deciding our acoustic requirements in “sound sensitive” rooms."
What we all want is a good and appropriate sound environment, but what is a good sound environment? And how do we create it.........?
Continue reading "The Sound guide - a support to design well-functioning hospitals" »
August 28, 2009
ECOPHON UK HEALTHCARE CONFERENCE, 9th SEPT
The Acoustic Guidance for UK Healthcare facilities and its practical implementation are just two of the topics being presented by expert speakers at a Healthcare Conference hosted by Saint-Gobain Ecophon on 9th September at The Kings Fund HQ in London.
Other topics include Design to control Healthcare Associated Infection, Sensory Design for Healing, the Hillingdon Hospital Pilot Ward and Sustainability in Community Healthcare.
Attendance to the conference is free for invited delegates, so if you wish to apply for one of the few remaining spaces please email the Conference Co-ordinator.
Continue reading "ECOPHON UK HEALTHCARE CONFERENCE, 9th SEPT" »
June 12, 2009
Evidence Based Design – quieter hospitals improve patient outcomes
Evidence Based Hospital Design (EBD) is a new field that guides health care construction. Research indicates that well-designed physical settings play an important role in helping hospitals to support patients healing and making hospitals better places for staff to work. The findings support the importance of improving a range of design characteristics or interventions, including good acoustic environments, nature distractions and daylight.
Continue reading "Evidence Based Design – quieter hospitals improve patient outcomes" »
May 18, 2009
I.O.A. TO HOLD "ACOUSTICS IN HEALTHCARE ENVIRONMENTS" MEETING, in JUNE 2009
The Building Acoustics Group of the UK's Institute of Acoustics has organised a meeting in Manchester on 16th June 2009. Entitled "Acoustics in Healthcare Environments", it will be held at the Victioria & Albert Hotel, and will discuss Key Issues relating to exactly how environmental acoustics affect healthcare outcomes.
Continue reading "I.O.A. TO HOLD "ACOUSTICS IN HEALTHCARE ENVIRONMENTS" MEETING, in JUNE 2009" »
March 22, 2009
WOULD YOU BE ABLE TO SLEEP IN AN INTENSIVE CARE UNIT?
It is of utmost importance that a patient is able to rest and sleep, but a Swedish study, conducted in a neurological intensive care unit, shows that is easier said than done.
Measurements were made over five days and showed average LAeq values of 53-58 dB, depending on time of day. But analysing equivalent sound pressure levels is not enough. It is also essential to analyse the occurrence and length of restorative periods, i.e. quieter periods where the noise levels is not assumed to disturb the patient’s sleep. The study shows that restorative periods last for only about 10 minutes, which means that a resting or sleeping patient will be disturbed several times an hour.
Read more about the study: Characterizing noise and perceived work environment in a neurological intensive care unit.
Continue reading "WOULD YOU BE ABLE TO SLEEP IN AN INTENSIVE CARE UNIT?" »
November 26, 2008
NOISE IN THE NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT (NICU)
In "Challenging Designs of Neonatal Intensive Care Units", Anne Marie Dazé Floyd, RN, MSN, CNS says:
A link has been established between exposure to constant room noise and loss in frequency and pattern discrimination essential to understanding the spoken word. Loss of an ability to discriminate speech can cause profound developmental delay by interfering with language acquisition.
In addition to the connection between noise levels and deficits in hearing discrimination, clear connections also exist between noise and physiological instability.
Continue reading "NOISE IN THE NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT (NICU)" »
November 20, 2008
PATIENTS RISK SLEEP PROBLEMS FROM NOISE IN HOSPITAL CRITICAL CARE UNITS
Nurse researchers have provided evidence that hospital critical care unit (CCU) noise may put patients at risk of sleep problems. The study, by M Topf and M Bookman at University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, goes on to say that technological advances in CCU's are contributing to this problem and that the results provide support for the hypothesis that CCU sound levels impact negatively on subjective sleep.
Continue reading "PATIENTS RISK SLEEP PROBLEMS FROM NOISE IN HOSPITAL CRITICAL CARE UNITS" »
November 5, 2008
Campaign to reduce noise in Neonatal Units
Birmingham Women's Hospital NHS Trust took part in a regional campaign to raise awareness of noise levels in Neonatal Units and the need to reduce them. Lead by Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Cheryl Lewis, the campaign highlighted the impact noise can have on babies, and included staff training, posters and badges, and the use of a Decibel Monitor in the Unit.
Neonatal Units can be very noisy places, with the amount of medical equipment, alarms, telephones and people's voices, and this can impact upon the babies' development.
Continue reading "Campaign to reduce noise in Neonatal Units" »
September 23, 2008
HTM 08-01 NEW UK ACOUSTIC GUIDANCE FOR HEALTHCARE
The new HTM (Health Technical Memorandum) gives Design Criteria for Room Acoustics in UK Healthcare Premises.
The document's Executive Summary states "Noise can increase heart rate, blood pressure, respiration rate and even blood cholesterol levels. Good acoustic conditions improve patient privacy and dignity, and promote essential sleep patterns. Such conditions are key to healing"
Recently published, it requires acoustic treatment, usually ceilings, to be provided in all occupied areas, including corridors.
"The requirement is ...
Continue reading "HTM 08-01 NEW UK ACOUSTIC GUIDANCE FOR HEALTHCARE" »
July 7, 2008
Alarms in hospitals – a chaotic sound environment
The use of alarms in hospitals was discussed intensively during the two days session "Healthcare Acoustics & Speech Privacy".
A study presented by S. Okcu, College of Architecture, GaTech, states that a patient in an ICU can be surrounded by up to 33 different alarms from medical equipment. Not only are the alarms disturbing to the patients, they also make the task for the staff to detect and analyse them more demanding.
Ilene Bush-Vishniac
"The alarms are of utmost importance, but do we really need all these alarms?" This is a question asked by Dr. Busch-Vishniac, MacMaster University (formerly from Johns Hopkins University) who was one of the presenters at the conference. And the question is relevant; in nine out of ten times no action is taken when an alarm goes off, except for turning the alarm off.
Continue reading "Alarms in hospitals – a chaotic sound environment" »
July 4, 2008
Influence of noise on patient’s sleep
Noise levels in hospitals are typically more than 15 dB(A) higher than target values given in guidelines (for example target values from WHO and the US Environmental Protection Agency). Furthermore, noise is often one of the top complaints from staff and patients. This is concluded in a review made by Hui Xie and Jian Kang at the University of Sheffield.
July 3, 2008
Conclusions from the Healthcare Acoustic Session
Directly after the session on healthcare and acoustics this afternoon we had a little talk with Dr Michael Phiri, one of the presenters.
Dr.Michael Phiri is Senior Research Fellow in the School of Architecture at the University of Sheffield.
By Marc Janssen, Concept Developer - Healthcare, Ecophon.
UK's new acoustic guidance document and the future of UK hospital design
On Tuesday Adrian Popplewell of Arup Acoustics presented a paper entitled "The Future of UK Hospital Design", and here he summarises for Acoustic Bulletin his involvement in the early drafting of HTM 08.01, the new Acoustic Guidance document for Healthcare. He also talks about the Drivers for Change in Healthcare over the coming years.
By Anthony Thomas, Concept Developer - Healthcare, Ecophon UK and Ireland.
Listen to the interview (2,27 minutes).
If you have questions or comments, please contact Anthony Thomas.
E-mail:anthony.thomas@ecophon.co.uk
Eliminating environmental stressors
Dr.Michael Phiri is Senior Research Fellow in the School of Architecture at the University of Sheffield.
He talks to Acoustic Bulletin about his presentation this afternoon entitled "Eliminating Environmental Stressors: managing hospital noise by design".
He is an advocate of the use of Evidence-Based Design to improve patient outcomes and reduce hospital operating costs.
For info, email:m.phiri@sheffield.ac.uk
By Anthony Thomas, Concept Developer - Healthcare, Ecophon UK and Ireland.
July 2, 2008
Every decibel counts!
I am Tobias Angelbeck, Concept Developer for Acoustics in Health Care Premises, Ecophon Germany. I talked to Dr. Jo Solet – the clinical Instructor at the Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge, MA (USA).
Right now she and her department are doing two researches.
One is a behavioural research project related to patients exposure to noise, with an outcome on measure of medical views.
The other is a virtual hospital in a neuroscience lab, studying how patients respond to specific real stimuli in a hospital environment.
Latest news from research on noise, sleep and intensive care
Professor Kang has been involved in many acoustic research projects with the University of Sheffield, and speaks to Acoustic Bulletin on his recent and current research in Healthcare environments and summarises his presentation entitled "A Systematic Review of the Influence of Noise on Patients Sleep in Intensive Care Units".
By Anthony Thomas, Concept Developer - Healthcare, Ecophon UK and Ireland.
Listen to the interview (3,04 minutes).
July 1, 2008
Why do we need standards?
Katrin Bergmark, Concept Developer - Healthcare, Ecophon Sweden.
This question formed the introduction to the overview of acoustic standards in Europe presented by Katrin Bergmark, Concept Developer at Ecophon in Sweden. Katrin talked about the current situation regarding sound in health care premises. Hospitals are often experienced as very noisy, leading to health effects on both patients and staff. In order to create a supporting sound environment we should aim to:
- secure privacy
- lower the noise levels
- facilitate good communication
And develop standards accordingly...
Click here to read Katrin's paper
This morning's summary - speech privacy in healthcare premises
This morning at 09:20 the session called healthcare acoustics & speech privacy – international perspectives started. Chaired by William Cavanaugh , David Sykes and Kerstin Persson Waye, the session provided an overview of emerging policies around the world.
Some of the conclusions are that the development of acoustic standards and guidelines for Healthcare facilities is really accelerating. David Sykes of ASA highlighted several waves of technological, economical and social trends that are responsible for that.
Continue reading "This morning's summary - speech privacy in healthcare premises" »
December 4, 2007
HAVE YOU REGISTERED FOR ACOUSTICS'08 IN PARIS?
From June 29th till July 4th 2008 “Acoustics’08 Paris” will be held in the Palais des Congrès in Paris. The conference is being organized by the ASA, the EAA and the Société Française d’Acoustique (SFA). It will bring together experts from all fields of acoustics from around the world.
Room acoustics in schools, offices AND health care facilities
Besides sessions on room acoustics in schools and offices, this conference will also strongly focus on sound in Health Care facilities. Erica Ryherd (Georgia institute of Technology) and Marc Janssen (Ecophon Group) will chair one of the health care related sessions.
Continue reading "HAVE YOU REGISTERED FOR ACOUSTICS'08 IN PARIS?" »
June 1, 2007
Noise in hospitals - the inconvenient truth
Sound levels in Health care premises have increased dramatically over the years, negatively affecting patient recovery as well as staff performance. Ecophon has recently published a knowlegde booklet on the sound envrionment in Healthcare premises, called Care about Sound. It describes the current noisy situation, lists relevant research and demonstrates through cases how well planned sound environments benefit the patient care in the end. Starting with an international version in English, other languages are planned to follow later this year.
To order a copy please contact your local Ecophon representative
March 7, 2007
sound control for improved outomes in healthcare
Hospitals are extremely noisy, and noise levels in most hospitals far exceed recommended guidelines. The high noise levels, as well as peak noise levels in hospitals, have serious impacts on patient and staff outcomes.
Research suggests that environmental interventions may be effective in reducing the noise levels in hospitals and improving the acoustical environment. Key interventions include a.o. installing high-performance sound-absorbing ceiling tiles.
These are just some of the conclusions from the recent paper called "Sound Control for Improved Outcomes in Healthcare Settings" by Anjali Joseph and Roger Ulrich (both Center for Health Systems and Design). If you want to read more about noise control through absorbing ceiling systems and other measures please read the full article
October 16, 2006
conference on health care buildings
Last week, I visited a Health care conference in the UK, London to be exact, called Delivering community healthcare buildings.
At this conference, relevant healthcare design experts and key architects in this sector got together to provide a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities involved in the design of a number of different community healthcare buildings.
Charlotte Ruben, representing White Arkitekter from Sweden presented the delegates a new attitude towards designing Health care premises, one in which the sound and healing environment is the main aim. It will be very interesting to follow the mega project she and her colleagues are working on: it's the design of the new Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm. Expectations are high since this is going to be the state of the art. 1 biliion Euro's, 300.000 m2.
The high awareness for quality in Sweden will hopefully result in good room acoustic discussions. To be continued...
The entire program is available here
June 2, 2006
Improved acoustics reduce risks in Healthcare premises
“It seems likely that improved acoustic conditions reduce risks of conflicts and errors.”
This is just one of the main messages from the research made in a coronary care unit in Sweden.
The study points out the importance of further research on possible effects of acoustics in healthcare on staff turnover, quality of patient care, and medical errors.
Acoustic measurements have been performed by Ingemansson Technology AB. This study was partly funded by Ecophon.
Continue reading "Improved acoustics reduce risks in Healthcare premises" »
May 29, 2006
CNN and AP quotes Ecophon study on acoustics in healthcare premises
Roger Ulrich, an authority in healthcare design, was recently interviewed on the issue of hospital noise by the news agency AP. Ulrich is professor of architecture at Texas A&M University and visiting professor at University College in London. In that interview, he highlights the seriousness of this question by referring to a major study on the topics previously addressed here.
"Hospital noise levels are far too high internationally and this has been known for decades"
Continue reading "CNN and AP quotes Ecophon study on acoustics in healthcare premises" »
March 4, 2006
Room acoustics' influence on sleep
Unwanted sound (noise) has been documented to be a serious problem for hospitalised patients. In some cases, most often different forms of intensive care noise levels can reach levels that are above what is advisable from an health and safety perspective (work environment perspective). In many hospitals noise levels are not a threat to healthy people and is the vicinity of what we would find acceptable for an office (for ex 50 dB (A)).
March 2, 2006
50 years of speech privacy
Privacy and confidentiality are given more and more importance in Europe, USA and other countries around the world. 2006 has been chosen to celebrate the 50th anniversary of speech privacy, a discipline pioneered by Leo Beranek and colleagues beginning in 1955.
December 15, 2005
Noise Levels in hospitals increase
March 20, 2005
Room acoustics in health care
The acoustic conditions in hospital buildings are becoming a topic in the medical community. Some environments, like intensive care or care for premature children (neonatal care), have recently been studied. There is a worry that premature children who are subjected to high noise levels will suffer health problems later on in life and that they might become more sensitive to stress. A review on acoustic recommendations for neonatal wards can be found in the 2004 June issue of Clinics in Perinatology.
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