Abstract
(I). Topics and background Noise problem in hospitals is a serious issue. There are two noise sources inside and outside the hospitals. For example, all electromechanical equipment (HVAC system, Laundry… etc.) is noise source of inside the hospital. Outside noise source of the hospital is also important as traffic could cause a lot of high noise level inside the hospital. It can cause nuisance to the doctor, staff and to the patients. People at hospitals need to get rest more than anyone else, but the present noise situation could be very harmful to the patients. Furthermore, the hospital needs a huge mechanical infrastructure, which contributes directly to increase the inside noise level. Daily activity results in an extraordinary amount of noise such as from the impact of trays, metal bed fixtures, conversation and even the TV. The noise is exacerbated because of the hard surfaces normally used to be easily cleaned in the hospital to limit bacterial growth. Besides, traffic around the hospital is important for convenience. In last study, a series of noise level measurements at 11 hospitals (single lobby) in central Taiwan had been executed. And a comparison with the regulation of World Health Organization (WHO) shows the urgent needs of the better guidelines concerning the noise control in hospital’s building design. A solution to this problem has been discussed using a prediction code for traffic or electromechanical equipment and a recommendation to analyze the noise floor (grade) inside and outside the hospitals. And they will be reviewed during the design stage for minimization. (II). Goals 1. To collect and analyze the measured data in all mention to hospital noise in the whole Taiwan. 2. To investigate the current circumstances for the noise pollution above 20 hospitals (including last research), and collect the reverberation time inside the waiting area. 3. To collect and arrange the building data about these 20 hospitals, and to establish the permit of noise levels in classification with regard to the measuring results. 4. To sketch space and material arrangements guidelines for owning a single lobby of a hospital design. And to measure the noise and vibration originated from the equipments. (III) Results Quiet environments are quite necessary for hospital, especially; a good image of a hospital was given by a clam lobby space as usual. However, a recent lobby hall of a general hospital was demanded for the high efficiency on medical facilities and varieties in convenience of spatial functions. The lobby hall becomes to be the noisiest location in a hospital. The methodology of this study is to record the continuous noise events (each 15 minutes integrated level) for the properties of hospital noise in lobby halls. And we applied the 5- scale questionnaire for investigation of the hospital noisiness respectively and the factor analyzing of noisy source globally. We completed to survey both of 21 hospitals’ noisiness in lobby halls and gathered 1220 questionnaires for comparison and analyzing. The results of investigation on continuous noise recordings show that noisy levels in the day time (9:00 ~ 17:00) are phenomena of normal distribution, and an index for noisiness which were derived from a mathematical slope of a linear part of in the cumulative probabilities’ rate (NCR) from 0.3 to 0.7. For this index, the correlation coefficient between noise level and noisiness is 0.75. Furthermore, the facilities’ noise is the most important factor of noise source in lobby hall was confirmed by factor analysis in three of them. And a better guidance for noise control was proposed in respective to the best 3 designing of our survey.