News Releases
Quiet, Please – Patient Zone
Noisy Hospitals Can Slow the Healing Process and Stress out Doctors and Nurses
April 15, 2010
Knoxville, Tenn. — We’ve all seen road signs that politely remind motorists, “Quiet–Hospital Zone.” Now it’s time to put up signs that read “Quiet–Patient Zone” inside many hospitals.
During the last 50 years, average daytime hospital sound levels have steadily increased from 57 decibels to 72 decibels. According to an American Medical News article, “It’s as if physicians and patients went from being surrounded by the humming of an electric shaver to being bombarded with the racket of a garbage disposal.”
Nighttime can be even worse. A Mayo Clinic study published in the American Journal of Nursing found that hospital noises during the night can reach peak levels of up to 113 decibels, which approaches the levels of chain saws or jackhammers and makes it nearly impossible for patients to sleep. Numerous other studies have shown that excessive noise can slow the healing process and contribute to stress and lapses in short-term memory, which could increase the risk of medical errors.
One Hospital’s Solution: Drastically Reduce Overhead Pages
The sources for this auditory pollution are many and varied: Paging systems, alarms, bedrails, monitors, televisions, telephones, medical pumps, heating and cooling systems, gurneys, ice machines, carts, and of course, conversations. Plus, the noisier it gets, the louder people must talk to be heard above the din.
How can hospitals give patients the peace and quiet they need to recuperate? At Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Pa., efforts to tone down the ambient noise were only moderately successful until earlier this year when the hospital implemented a clinical communications system from PerfectServe. The system provides a single network platform and directory that connects every hospital medical staff member with easy access via voice, Web and mobile interfaces.
Although Jefferson’s primary purpose for selecting PerfectServe was to connect clinicians so they could better coordinate care, the system offered an added benefit – it virtually eliminated the need to page physicians over the loudspeaker. Instead, physicians or nurses simply dial a single number to contact physicians (usually over their cell phones) by voice, mobile email or text messaging.
At many hospitals, difficulties in contacting physicians are a primary cause for their high volume of overhead pages. It’s not uncommon for a nurse to page a physician two or three times before realizing the doctor is no longer there or is being covered by another physician, especially at night. These inefficiencies not only create a noisier environment but also waste time and delay the care process. Jefferson no longer has this “rework” problem because the rules for who is covering for whom and how each doctor wants to be reached are built into PerfectServe.
Once the hospital began using PerfectServe, the reduction in noise levels was immediate and dramatic. Both patients and nurses have commented to Louise Urban, vice president and chief nursing officer, on how much quieter the hospital is without the constant drone of overhead pages.
“PerfectServe gives our staff more time to be with patients and has enabled us to drastically cut back on our pages,” said Urban. “One of the nurses told me she can now concentrate better because she doesn’t have that noise clutter in her head.”
Other simple and effective ways for hospitals to reduce noise include making sure staff keeps the doors to patients’ rooms closed, putting rubber wheels on instrument carts, having the staff wear soft-soled shoes and using posters to remind staff members, patients and visitors to pipe down.
About PerfectServe
PerfectServe is an intelligent clinical communications system that routes calls and messages to the right doctor, at the right time, while giving physicians complete control over how they are contacted. Hospitals that use PerfectServe improve the coordination of care and reduce risks. They also improve physician satisfaction, which enhances revenues and tightens physician alignment.
By giving clinicians a more efficient and reliable way to connect with each other, PerfectServe provides practical solutions for minimizing communication breakdowns, which the Joint Commission has identified as the single greatest contributing factor to sentinel events and delays in care in U.S. hospitals.
Based in Knoxville, Tenn., PerfectServe processes more than 30 million clinical communication interactions each year involving more than 14,000 physicians. A recent physician survey shows that 93 percent would recommend PerfectServe to their colleagues. For more information, visit www.perfectserve.com.