Veille documentaire MTPH

Auteur Timothy Y Hsu
Auteur Erica E Ryherd
Auteur James E West
Auteur Colin L Barnhill
Auteur Marie Swisher
Auteur Natalia Levit
Résumé It has been shown through previous research that hospital noise levels continue to rise and that there exist potential health and occupational hazards due to the soundscape. Previous studies have examined parameters such as overall average sound levels, statistical distributions of levels, and frequency content in a variety of wards. However, studying the impact of sound absorbing materials in medical facilities is still very challenging due to strict infectious control requirements. We will present a case study on installing various sound absorbing treatments in four hematological cancer wards. Four units in the Weinberg Building of the Johns Hopkins Hospital were selected due to their identical geometries, similar staff activities, and similar patient acuity levels. Researchers installed different acoustical treatments in each ward, from untreated to fully treated with prototype materials. The prototype materials tested consisted of a layer of DuPont() Tyvek((R)) covering a panel of fiberglass acoustic absorbing material. In each ward, extensive acoustical measurements were taken and a questionnaire survey was administered to the registered nurses on staff. Preliminary results will be presented that compare and contrast attributes such as background noise, reverberation, speech intelligibility, and subjective perception in the four different wards.
Publication The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Volume 127
Numéro 3
Pages 1805
Date Mar 2010