Making Hospitals Quieter

Reported May 2006

BALTIMORE (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- You wouldn't have surgery at a baseball game, but a new study shows hospital noise levels are equivalent to a sporting event.

It's a deafening problem for Johns Hopkins registered nurse Claire Beers. "It's often the conversation noise because people are speaking above all of the equipment and all of the background noise," she says.

The biggest noise offenders? Conversation, intercom pages, and ventilation systems. But now, acoustical engineers say a sound solution could be in new sound-free padded panels.

"What it's doing is taking all of that sound away so that it can't keep hanging around the facility," Johns Hopkins acoustical engineer Ilene Busch-Vishniac, Ph.D., tells Ivanhoe.

The panels are made of fiberglass, covered in anti-bacterial fabric. When placed on the ceiling or walls, sound waves hit the panels and become absorbed and trapped, losing their energy in the entangled fibers within the panels -- leaving nothing left but peace and quiet.

Busch-Vishniac says the more material a hospital installs, the quicker that sound ceases to be audible.

Putting an end to hospital noise could make Beers' work-day quieter and safer. She says, "It's why we have a whole series of checks and balances because the environment is so distracting." But this distraction now has a sound science solution.

Researchers say long-range noise solutions will require sound experts and architects working together to reduce noise problems when planning future hospitals and renovations of existing medical centers.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Ilene Busch-Vishniac
Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD 21218
(410) 516-8777

For more on hospital noise and other acoustical issues:

The Acoustical Society of America
2 Huntington Quadrangle
Melville, NY 11747-4502
(516) 576-2360
asa@aip.org
http://asa.aip.org

A new twist to the way tornado damage is reported that tells more about the intensity of a storm.

Will the 2006 Hurricane Season be as bad as last year's?

Why are these planes flying toward hurricanes? Take a ride with NOAA's Hurricane Hunters.

How a small device makes surgery a cinch ... and could help people with Parkinson's, essential tremor, Tourette's and OCD.

From your identity, to your credit cards and bank balance, the power of touch can now protect your personal information.

Tiny sensors keep a watchful eye on pricey high-tech products that can be easily stolen.

Could your walls end up wearing your favorite pair of jeans? The fashion staple now has an environmentally friendly use.

The most erratic, unpredictable and violent of storms happen in the most unusual places.

Hospital noise levels are equivalent to a sporting event! Now, some sound advice to help quiet things down.

New 3-D images help save time, money and lives.

Detecting disease long before symptoms appear with PET scans.

Listen up! Here's one CD case you probably haven't seen before ... A cross between an iPod and a record player.