Too Noisy to Heal: Using Advances in Hospital Acoustics to Bridge the Gap Between Architecture, Engineering, And Medicine (Feature‪)‬

Hospitals are noisy and stressful places. Most exceed the World Health Organization standards in average noise levels. A recent study showed that hospitals are getting noisier each year, with a growing cacophony of people, alarms, machines, and clattering carts. (1) This is particularly critical because so much of what patients, staff, and family members do depends on a good sound environment: Patients need to sleep and heal without stress; staff, patients, and family members need to communicate accurately but privately; staff need to hear alarms and calls for help. Concerns about the "soundscape," or acoustical environment, in hospitals aren't new. We use the term "soundscape" rather than "noise" because a good acoustical environment does not simply reduce unwanted noise; it also provides pleasing or distracting sounds, allows good speech discrimination, allows auditory privacy, supports music as needed, etc. Additionally, soundscape is an immersive concept. That is, it is not just specific sounds that are considered, but also how sound transmits and propagates through spaces, etc. So why aren't all hospitals designed with acoustics in mind? In this article, we will highlight what has been done, what we still need to know, and what you can do about hospital acoustics.