BENEFITS OF SOUNDPROOFING IN HOSPITALS

Benefits of Soundproofing in Hospitals

There are many benefits of soundproofing in hospitals using acoustical products as mentioned below. The research about noise in hospitals and other health care settings have shown that clinical staff and patients have identified noise as a major cause of stress. Also, traditional control solutions for infection usually work against an acoustic environment that is healthy. For easy cleaning, surfaces are covered with hard materials which instead of absorbing sound reflect it. Similarly acoustical duct linings used for suppressing mechanical noises are banned between room air devices and final filters in many hospital areas.

Interior Finishes
Room surfaces having sound absorptive finishes in health care spaces can lower the intensity of noise associated with clinical alarms, medical devices, speech and other sound sources. Different levels of sound absorption are provided by different products. So, wall covering, ceiling, and floor selections should be on the basis of aesthetics, budget, and acoustical benefits.

Wall Coverings
Sound levels can be reduced even further by adding finishes of sound absorption to more than one room surface like both ceiling tiles and wall panels in corridors. Cotton fiber or glass wall panels can be enclosed in a thin impenetrable film, like mylar, taffeta vinyl, or polyvinyl fluoride for enhancing cleanability in a health care setting. However it is not needed to wash wall areas that are out of high-touch zones and in nonclinical spaces. Fabric-wrapped panels perform better and are less expensive for these applications.

Ceilings

Acoustical ceiling panels made from glass fiber provide sound absorption that is very effective. The enclosure of these panels is in a thin antimicrobial film. They are used in clean-room applications such as hospitals and retain most of their properties of sound absorption. This is one of the benefits of soundproofing in hospitals. Glass fiber panels having properties of high sound absorption suit well for open spaces like open plan offices and corridors since they can lower sound produced through these spaces.

Sound can pass through easily through glass fiber panels. In open spaces, there is less concern about speech from adjacent spaces and ceiling plenum noise because usually sound levels from background are high enough to conceal disturbances.

Mineral fiber acoustical ceiling panels provide less absorption than glass fiber, but their properties of sound transmission loss are greater. They can be used where both transmission and absorption loss are needed. Hospitals are known to use mineral fiber ceiling panels in clinical spaces and patient rooms for balancing good room acoustics against noise transmission from ceiling plenum. This is one of the benefits of soundproofing in hospitals.

Composite ceiling panels are a combination of glass fiber facing with a gypsum board or mineral fiber backing. These panels have the properties of high sound absorption and also high sound transmission. These benefits of soundproofing in hospitals make them an ideal choice for neonatal intensive care units (NICUs).