Acoustical evaluation of two wards of a Canadian teaching hospital

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the acoustical conditions in two wards of a research/teaching hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The selection of the wards was based on managerial-staff needs and perceptions of issues related to the acoustical working environment with respect to privacy and potential aggressive behaviours. Following meetings with the clinical managers of different care-delivery units, two units were selected: an adult emergency department and a long-term-care unit where the patient population was a mix of elderly with various mental- and physical-health conditions. The evaluation methods included long-term noise measurements, building physical-acoustical measurements, noise dosimetry, and healthcare-staff interviews/questionnaires. In particular, measurements were made of the following physical-acoustical parameters in the facilities: unoccupied and occupied noise level; reverberation time; Speech Intelligibility Index. Results were evaluated by comparing them with acceptability criteria. The identification of non-optimal aspects of the facilities' acoustical environments resulted from the consideration and analysis of staff responses and from comparison with existing guidelines.