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Evaluation Of Hospital Soundscapes To Improve Patient And Staff Experience, Jay Bliefnick

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Thesis, and Student Research

Hospital soundscapes can be difficult environments to assess acoustically due to the continuous activity within units. Routinely, patients perceive these soundscapes poorly when rating their hospital experience on HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) surveys administered after discharge. In addition, hospital staff can be negatively impacted by the acoustical environments in which they work, affecting both performance and job satisfaction. This doctoral research addressed these issues across three phases by collecting acoustical measurements within three individual hospitals, comparing results with provided patient and staff survey information, and conducting laboratory tests of hospital noise perception. In the first …