Hospital noise can pose safety risk

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego are working on ways to reduce noise levels, which can become as loud as a jet engine at some points during the day and can affect patients' sleep patterns and blood pressure, according to an article on the Fierce Healthcare website.

"All of the equipment is going for 20 patients. And now 20 more nurses walk in and they're each having one-to-one conversations about each patient's status and everyone's speaking above the level of the EKG alarm and the overhead announcements and the ventilator systems," Eve Edelstein, Ph.D., an associate professor at the University of Arizona, said in the article.

Noise pollution also contributes to stress among hospital staff, Edelstein said. She is working with UC San Diego music and sonic arts professor, Peter Otto, on noise reduction strategies, according to the article. 

Otto has developed a sound bender —  a small machine that directs sound. In a hospital, a sound bender could restrict sound to the people who need to hear it.

Read the article.