Study Finds High Levels of Hospital Noise

June 2, 2004 -- Mayo Clinic nurse Cheryl Cmiel and her colleagues suspected that the noise level in hospitals was too high for most patients' comfort, but after Cmiel spent the night in the hospital herself, even she was surprised.

"My blood pressure cuff went off every hour and every hour I was awake when that went off, and hearing the little beeps of the machine," said Cmiel, who works at St. Mary's Hospital, a Mayo Clinic-affiliated facility in Rochester, Minn. "We were kind of surprised by how noisy it got."

Armed with a dosimeter, the Mayo Clinic nurses took decibel measurements. As a point of comparison, a motorcycle measures 95 decibels. The portable X-ray machine measured 98 decibels. The hallway intercom registered at 70 decibels. The loudest hospital sound — the 7 a.m. nursing shift change — reached 113 decibels, as loud as a jackhammer.

Laurel Carpenter of Los Angeles had a similar experience during her eight-day stay at a different hospital where she was treated for debilitating headaches.

"It was pretty awful, there was a lot of noise," Carpenter said. "I was awakened at night by carts, by people speaking in the hallways, monitor noises. My recovery ended up being much better at home."

Dr. Christina Johns, a Good Morning America medical contributor and an expert on emergency pediatric care, also put some routine hospital equipment to the test. The machine that measures heart rate and oxygenation measured 70 decibels. The IV machine alarm measured 69 decibels.

Slowed-Down Healing

Experts say excessive hospital noise slows down the body's healing process.

"We know that sleep deprivation over short periods of time causes significant detriments of immune function," said Danny Lewin, a sleep medicine expert at Children's National Medical Center in Washington.

Susan Mazer of Healing HealthCare Systems advises 100 hospitals around the country on how to reduce their noise levels.

"Everyone who works in the hospital knows it's a problem," Mazer said.

Shady Grove Adventist HospitalHospital in Rockville, Md., decided to take action.