Healthcare Acoustics: The Importance of a Quiet and Peaceful Environment

Healthcare Acoustics: Healthcare facilities and Hospitals are places where people go to get better, but without effective acoustic design they can become noisy environments that disrupt sleep and make it hard for clinicians and patients to be heard. A strong body of evidence exists linking high healthcare facility noise levels to poor clinical outcomes, alongside World Health Organization guidance to ensure noise levels in a ward do not exceed 35 decibels during the day and 30 decibels at night. However, many UK healthcare facilities exceed these guidelines, and it is far easier and more cost effective to reduce potential acoustic design issues at the early stages of healthcare facility design and construction, rather than after work has concluded.

The importance of good acoustic design is recognised in BREEAM 2018, which provides credits for compliance with Health Technical Memorandum 08-01. HTM 08-01 itself recommends that “a specialist acoustic adviser should be used to take a holistic approach to the acoustic design”.

What can be done to control noise levels in healthcare facilities?

Effective noise control requires experienced engineers involved throughout the design process. Ensuring that internal partitions are effectively designed to control noise transfer from ward to ward, designing clinical spaces to have appropriate levels of reverberation so patients and clinicians can understand each other and ensuring that building services and medical equipment do not keep patients up at night can be a challenging task for a designer, but you can do something positive to reduce noise levels with our help.

PDA’s healthcare acoustics services can help you create a more peaceful and comfortable environment for your patients. We offer a full range of acoustic services, including:

• Helping you to design your building envelope to reduce noise break-in from outside environmental noise.
• Assisting with the design of internal partitions to reduce sound transfer from room to room and ensuring that conservations remain private.
• Conducting environmental noise surveys to identify and control sources of noise pollution, and to demonstrate compliance with BREEAM Pol 05.
• Giving guidance for mechanical and electrical plant design to help minimise noise from HVAC systems and other equipment.
• Designing for effective reverberation control to improve speech intelligibility and acoustic comfort.
• Post completion acoustic testing to demonstrate compliance and spot outstanding issues in time to deal with them.

Our team of experienced acoustic engineers have over 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry, and we are committed to providing high-quality, cost-effective solutions that meet the specific needs of your healthcare facility.

Why Choose PDA?

• Over 30 years of experience in healthcare facility acoustics.
• Proven track record on both small and large projects.
• Competitive rates without compromising on quality.
• ISO 9001:2015 certified.
• All consultants are members of the Institute of Acoustics and ANC Registered.
• Accredited through Construction Line (Gold), CHAS, and CQMS.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can improve the acoustics of your healthcare facilities.

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