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 […]
hospital
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. […]
‘Good’ and ‘bad’ healthcare acoustics
The sound environment impacts our well-being. In healthcare, patients and staff are seen to both feel and do better in an environment with ‘good’, sound-absorbing acoustics. As opposed to being in surroundings with sound-reflecting, or ‘bad’, acoustics. Healthcare acoustics Sound-reflecting vs. sound-absorbing acoustics Research comparing the impact of sound-reflecting and sound-absorbing acoustics on healthcare staff and […]
Future-proofing healthcare with these rules
How do healthcare and hospital management need to adapt in order to future-proofing healthcare businesses? What challenges lie ahead and how can they increase their contribution to both society and a sustainable future? In my work, I have the benefit of listening to and meeting both authorities in healthcare management and healthcare professionals. Based on […]
Treating critically ill infants in a sound way
Imagine having a baby, or remember when you had yours. One of your strongest wishes (if not the strongest) was probably for the baby to be healthy, and for the pregnancy to be ‘normal’. But what if, instead of having a full-term, healthy baby on your chest, you find yourself in a high-tech Neonatal Intensive […]
Healing environments – Care for Sound
Care for Sound symposium on healing, healthcare and it´s relation to sound! Healing environments can greatly impact a patient’s hospital stay Here are two examples from the UK Patient Opinion website: “There were no doors only curtains, the lady next to me coughed all night and the two patients next to her were snoring. The […]
Fight, flight, or safety? The impact of alarming sounds on healthcare professionals
Fight, flight, or safety? Humans respond very well to sounds, and our hearing is created to protect us. To guide us in understanding what is going on we have our ears, our own built-in ‘watchdogs’ . It quickly determine where a sound comes from, and whether a situation should activate our fight or flight mode. […]
Hospital sound environments – we can make them sound better!
Sound environments – hospitals are noisy Often very noisy. Hardly ever even close to the maximum limit of 35 dB set by the World Health Organization (WHO) that would be considered a healing sound environment. Both patients and staff can be adversely affected by this noisy sound environment. The growing number of technological devices, an […]
Healing environment in The Meander Medical Centre
The Meander Medical Centre in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, was built entirely according to healing environment principles. The recently opened Meander Medical Centre in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, was built entirely according to these principles. The layout and design of this hospital are intended to facilitate much-needed rest and promote the recovery process. At a recent seminar […]
Serene low-risk births in Birmingham
Low-risk “Given the difficulty of communicating with some of our patients, it was important to create an environment where they could feel safe and supported by our midwives,” says Paul Scott, capital projects manager at the City Hospital in Birmingham. The Serenity Midwifery Birth Centre provides low-risk women with a tranquil, state-of-the-art place to give birth. “It was an […]
