Determination of sound levels and creating an ideal acoustic environment with simulation software in Dokuz Eylul University hospital adult emergency department

OBJECTIVE: Noisy pollution is an environmental problem which is risk for human health. Many previous studies showed the indoor noise levels in emergency department of hospitals, compared to other departments, are significantly higher and effecting the staff and patients in a negative way. But, all of the previous studies focus on the volume levels. Our study, apart from determining the sound levels in emergency department, makes a step further with identifying the noise sources in emergency department and creating an ideal acoustic environment in virtual environment with the help of simulation software, designing an ideal noise cancelling environment for emergency department staff and patients. METHOD: Study has been done in two steps. In the modeling and recording step the noise levels in three different physical locations in emergency department were measured with handheld noise level meters in eight hours periods for six days and saved. In the acoustic simulation step, with the measured sound levels, a simulation of the emergency departmentwas designed with the help of appropriate computer software, and considering the frequent noise priorities of the noise sources, an ideal acoustic environment of emergency departmentwas created. RESULTS: The average niose levels measured were 62,9 dBA in the resuscitation area, 62,9 dBA in the monitorized observation area and 64,8 dBA in the examining units area The average sound level calculated of emergency department in all three areas was 63,54 dB. We also recorded the resonance time in all areas for several frequencies including the human ear can hear. The difference between post acoustic simulations were statistically low. CONCLUSION: The average of noise levels in resuscitation area, monitorized observation area and examining unit area above the national and international criteria. There are no statistically differences between the areas. The highest moment noise level was recorded as high as turbo jet on thunder noise. Acoustic simulation has been achieved by changing the structural characteristics of emergency department. After acoustic simulation there was not a 11statistical difference between noise levels although a slight improvement has been observed. To observe lower resonance time after acoustic simulation have led us to think that the high levels of noise may not only due to structural design but may also due to emergency department crowding. KEYWORDS: Emergency department, noise, ideal acoustic environment