Hospital Work on Most Frequent Complaint Noise

¶ … Noise Reduction

Medical care institutions have come up with various strategies to reduce noise generated within their facilities. However, this has remained quiet a challenge. The situation has never been rosier even in the private rooms within such facilities. Matters have worsened bearing in mind that hospitals have become increasingly open with more liberal visiting hours and policies that permit cell phones and other devices (Cmiel, Karr, Gasser, Oliphant & Neveau, 2004). The war is not yet lost because some medical facilities have come up with ways of reducing noise like reducing the frequency and intensity of medical alarms, dimming lights in the evening, and replacing nurses' pagers and walkie-talkies with mobile headsets. Walkie-talkies and pagers make all manner of noises during a typical night in a hospital bed. Patients are also being provided with Quiet Kits (Landro, 2013). The use of information technology is really taking the war against noise in the hospital a notch higher. Other than the replacement of pagers and walkie-talkies with the headsets, patients are also being provided with Quiet Kits, white-noise machines, and headsets for TV's and iPads. Information technology is also used to induce relaxation and improve the quality of sleep (Landro, 2013). This is especially true under circumstances when hospitals provide The CARE Channel that provides continuous ambient relaxation environment. This channel offers a 24/7 television menu of original instrumentation music and nature imagery including a starry night sky. Hospitals have also come with ways of mitigating the noise menace by masking intrusive sound and distracting patients from the cacophony. Hospitals have also invested in ambient white noise machines and sound absorbing ceiling tiles and carpets in rooms and corridors.

Noise in hospitals especially those coming from the pagers and walkie-talkies is something that has to be addressed amicable because it disturbs patient's sleep, prompts spikes in blood pressure and interferes with wound healing and pain management. Every patient has noise levels that they find disturbing (Landro, 2013). Hospital stuff with their beeping pagers and those conversing heavily from their walkie-talkies might in a way interfere with a patient's sleep. Hospital authorities resolve to replace these gadgets with wireless headsets is a step ahead towards eliminating noise within healthcare facilities. With the headsets, vital information can be communicated to the medical staff without raising attention of the patients within the facility.

There are other tenets of information technology not mentioned with the document that can help reduce noise with a medical facility. With the evolution of information technology patients under critical care can be monitored from a central place without necessarily relying on alarm to alert the medical staff incase of an emergency. This will substantively reduce the traffic of medical personnel to such wards bearing in mind that frequent opening of doors is also some source of noise. Close circuit television can also be used to monitor patients in critical care from a central place. This reduces traffic to such rooms.