A hospital is a challenging environment in terms of acoustics and to support recovery. There is a constant flow of people moving around the spaces. The rooms themselves feature no shortage of hard surfaces, and a range of different equipment makes the spaces even noisier. The acoustics must also be capable of meeting high hygiene […]
healthcare
The healing sounds of music
Can music therapy improve the sound environment for patients in hospitals? And how does it affect the patient experience when a healing sound environment is present? We’ve invited US-based Anne Taylor, CEO of Scandic Health and Registered Nurse. Scandic Health is offering music therapy, MusiCure – Music as Medicine, which is composed by the Danish […]
Danish project on hospital acoustics continues with funding from Danish Sound Innovation Network
Thea Mathilde Larsen, Research Assistant at DTU (Technical University of Denmark), has recently defended her master thesis project ‘Study of Room Acoustics and Noise at Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital’, on two Danish projects. A study aimed to investigate the need for improving room acoustics in hospitals along with investigating staff’s opinion of the noise problem. […]
Did you miss out? ICBEN 2017 – Congress on Noise as a Public Health Problem
The last month I have had the privilege to attend three conferences – IFHE in Bologna (the 7th European Congress for the International Federation of Hospital Engineering), European Healthcare Design in London and this week ICBEN in Zürich. And what a way to end it! ICBEN was amazing – great program, great speakers wanting to […]
Danish study: 97% of hospital staff are sometimes disturbed by noise
Danish study on healthcare facilities. Presentation day Today I had the pleasure of attending a presentation day at DTU (Technical University of Denmark) arranged by the Electro Department under the title: Acoustic Technology & Centre for Acoustic-Mechanical Micro Systems. The speakers were mainly PhD students and Postdocs and the topics varied from ‘Loudspeaker Array Auralisations […]
Proposal for revised Building Code in Finland – key implications
Acoustic standards, guidelines and building codes have the potential of having a profound impact on future construction, for better or worse, for years to come. That is why we at Acoustic Bulletin keep a keen eye on the developments. We’ve written about this topic on several occasions, like this post from Poland, or this one about […]
Simplifying acoustics
Acoustics can be confusing, here’s how to simplify it For someone that is new to the world of acoustics, going to a conference like Internoise can be an eye-opener in terms of the width of disciplines that’s included under the umbrella of acoustics. Acoustic Bulletin focuses to a large degree on room acoustics, and we […]
Improve sound environments in operating modules
Designing hospitals is a challenging task; anyone ever involved in such a project knows that! An increasing trend in Sweden, and probably other countries too, is to use ready-made modules for specialist areas. I have had the privilege to visit various building sites and completed projects where ready-made modules for Operating Rooms (OR) were used. […]
Sound and acoustics in healthcare – new podcast episode
New podcast episode available. Are healthcare providers providing the rooms we need to heal effectively? The impact of good acoustics on the success of healthcare is an increasingly hot topic, with a clear link increasingly seen between the provision of a calm, quiet acoustic environment and improved treatment outcomes. In the fourth new podcast episode […]
Designing a sound Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Neonatal Intensive Care A neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is a place that is never quiet. It is filled with medical equipment, incubators, babies and staff. The background noise constantly exceeds 50 dB, which is equivalent to hearing the ongoing sound of a refrigerator or of light traffic. Sometimes the noise peaks up to 70-75 […]
