Hospital noise stresses patients and staff.(AUDIOLOGY)

Johns Hopkins University researchers report that excessive noise in hospitals leads to stressed workers, raises the risk of errors because instructions aren't properly heard, and can even interfere with healing and recovery. The noise from beeping monitors, overhead pages, and ongoing conversations create a tidal wave of sound where everyone speaks more loudly to be heard as the noise level around them increases.

The researchers, Eileen Busch-Vishniac and James West, are acoustics experts. They made 24-hour sound measurements of every area at Johns Hopkins. The facility was ...

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