Quiet design: Hospital experiments with sound panels to reduce noise

ANN ARBOR-One of the most common complaints about hospitals is the noise. Patients complain that they can't sleep soundly in the environment of multiple monitors, paging systems, wheel chairs and gurneys, and carts that squeak. Hospitals are using quiet hours and other methods to help patients get a good night's sleep. Ongoing efforts at the University of Michigan Health System are making the hospital quieter, and the hospital has tested sound panels designed to dial down noise. During a pilot study, strategically placed sound acoustic panels helped diffuse sound in the hallways around patient rooms. The modest 3-4 sound decibel drop is recognizable to the human ear and consistent with a fall in noise generated by a car slowing down from 80 mph to 60 mph. "In hospital environments where noise levels are often double what they should be according to the World Health Organization's standard decibel guidelines for patient rooms, the difference is significant," says Majtaba Navvab, Ph.D., associate professor of architecture and design at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan.