The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Mapping sources of noise in an intensive care unit

Mapping sources of noise in an intensive care unit
Mapping sources of noise in an intensive care unit
Excessive noise in hospitals adversely affects patients’ sleep and recovery, causes stress and fatigue in staff and hampers communication. The World Health Organization suggests sound levels should be limited to 35 decibels. This is probably unachievable in intensive care units, but some reduction from current levels should be possible. A preliminary step would be to identify principal sources of noise. As part of a larger project investigating techniques to reduce environmental noise, we installed a microphone array system in one with four beds in an adult general intensive care unit. This continuously measured locations and sound pressure levels of noise sources. This report summarises results recorded over one year. Data were collected between 7 April 2017 and 16 April 2018 inclusive. Data for a whole day were available for 248 days. The sound location system revealed that the majority of loud sounds originated from extremely limited areas, very close to patients’ ears. This proximity maximises the adverse effects of high environmental noise levels for patients. Some of this was likely to be appropriate communication between the patient, their caring staff and visitors. However, a significant proportion of loud sounds may originate from equipment alarms which are sited at the bedside. A redesign of the intensive care unit environment to move alarm sounds away from the bed‐side might significantly reduce the environmental noise burden to patients.
0003-2409
1018-1025
Darbyshire, J.L.
348e17c4-69ed-42ca-b2bb-f70cd35fc06a
Muller-Trapet, M.
d8d9fb3e-d6c2-4b15-9516-d692cdea36b7
Cheer, J.
8e452f50-4c7d-4d4e-913a-34015e99b9dc
Fazi, F.M.
e5aefc08-ab45-47c1-ad69-c3f12d07d807
Young, J.D.
70edf578-9c08-4a7c-b740-e9c5e222cfb5
Darbyshire, J.L.
348e17c4-69ed-42ca-b2bb-f70cd35fc06a
Muller-Trapet, M.
d8d9fb3e-d6c2-4b15-9516-d692cdea36b7
Cheer, J.
8e452f50-4c7d-4d4e-913a-34015e99b9dc
Fazi, F.M.
e5aefc08-ab45-47c1-ad69-c3f12d07d807
Young, J.D.
70edf578-9c08-4a7c-b740-e9c5e222cfb5

Darbyshire, J.L., Muller-Trapet, M., Cheer, J., Fazi, F.M. and Young, J.D. (2019) Mapping sources of noise in an intensive care unit. Anaesthesia, 74 (8), 1018-1025. (doi:10.1111/anae.14690).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Excessive noise in hospitals adversely affects patients’ sleep and recovery, causes stress and fatigue in staff and hampers communication. The World Health Organization suggests sound levels should be limited to 35 decibels. This is probably unachievable in intensive care units, but some reduction from current levels should be possible. A preliminary step would be to identify principal sources of noise. As part of a larger project investigating techniques to reduce environmental noise, we installed a microphone array system in one with four beds in an adult general intensive care unit. This continuously measured locations and sound pressure levels of noise sources. This report summarises results recorded over one year. Data were collected between 7 April 2017 and 16 April 2018 inclusive. Data for a whole day were available for 248 days. The sound location system revealed that the majority of loud sounds originated from extremely limited areas, very close to patients’ ears. This proximity maximises the adverse effects of high environmental noise levels for patients. Some of this was likely to be appropriate communication between the patient, their caring staff and visitors. However, a significant proportion of loud sounds may originate from equipment alarms which are sited at the bedside. A redesign of the intensive care unit environment to move alarm sounds away from the bed‐side might significantly reduce the environmental noise burden to patients.

Text
Darbyshire_et_al-2019-Anaesthesia - Version of Record
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (1MB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 2 April 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 7 May 2019
Published date: 7 May 2019

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 430925
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/430925
ISSN: 0003-2409
PURE UUID: b5b4eb83-39b1-4866-9aca-f730665a7552
ORCID for J. Cheer: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0552-5506
ORCID for F.M. Fazi: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4129-1433

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 17 May 2019 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:05

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: J.L. Darbyshire
Author: M. Muller-Trapet
Author: J. Cheer ORCID iD
Author: F.M. Fazi ORCID iD
Author: J.D. Young

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×