Division of Critical Care Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 1211 21st Avenue South Suite 526, Nashville, TN, 37212, USA.
J Clin Monit Comput. 2019 Aug;33(4):557-562. doi: 10.1007/s10877-018-0215-3. Epub 2018 Nov 2.
Hospital noise levels regularly exceed those recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). It is uncertain whether high noise levels have adverse effects on patient health. High levels of noise increase patient sleep loss, anxiety levels, length of hospital stay, and morbidity rates. Staff conversation and auditory medical alarms are amongst the leading noise producing stimuli, with combinations of stimuli accounting for much of the high noise levels. The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey shows a slight improvement in overall hospital noise levels in the United States, indicating a minor reduction in noise levels. Alarm ambiguity, alarm masking and inefficient alarm design contributes to a large portion of sounds that exceed the environmental noise level in the hospital. Improving the hospital soundscape can begin by training staff in noise reduction, enforcing noise reduction programs, reworking alarm design and encouraging research to evaluate the relative effects of noise producing stimuli on the hospital soundscape.
医院的噪音水平经常超过世界卫生组织（WHO）建议的水平。目前尚不清楚高噪音水平是否对患者健康有不良影响。高水平的噪音会增加患者的睡眠损失、焦虑水平、住院时间和发病率。医护人员的谈话声和听觉医疗警报声是主要的噪音产生源之一，而各种刺激源的组合则是造成高噪音水平的主要原因。医院消费者评估医疗保健提供者和系统调查显示，美国医院的整体噪音水平略有改善，表明噪音水平略有降低。警报模糊、警报掩蔽和低效的警报设计导致医院环境噪音水平以上的声音很大一部分。改善医院的声景可以从培训员工减少噪音、执行降噪计划、重新设计警报以及鼓励研究评估产生噪音的刺激源对医院声景的相对影响开始。
