Unfortunately, sometimes it’s the walls, the floor, or the ceiling. It seems like every hospital I’ve visited in the last five years is under construction, renovating their current space or planning for large additions. With all the changes, it’s easy to forget about the “unseen” aspects of the design, such as Mechanical Noise and Vibration Control.

A common problem is loud mechanical units going in over operating suites. Vibration and noise from the mechanical units can cause problems with the medical equipment inside the suite. Too much noise and vibration can ultimately compromise the accuracy of the equipment. This can lead to misinterpretation of medical data and serious health issues. Operating suites are also very active places with lots of health caregivers interacting with each other. Excessive noise levels in the operating room can cause communication issues at a critical moment in time.

You can’t drive through a major city without noticing the huge amounts of healthcare construction going on. With high land prices and expensive medical equipment costs, every square foot of usable space needs to be maximized – including the space over the Surgical Suites and Operating Rooms.

Mechanical and electrical coordination is huge; there are limited spaces and chances to make everything fit and work. Plus the cost of construction materials is going up – copper, wire, steel – almost any metal. The time and cost restraints force mechanical and electrical trades to look for money saving solutions, and often these solutions get changed in the field without assessing the acoustical effects on healthcare, hospital staff, patients, and patient satisfaction.

In existing construction, there’s no silver bullet plan for fixing these issues. Sometimes, it’s necessary to make sound and vibration measurements to identify the problems. For new construction, we use 3D computer modeling software, such as EASE, to predict the sound/vibration problems even before construction begins. In the fast pace of hospital and medical facility design and construction, make sure the noise and vibration is under control. It’s a whole lot cheaper to design an alternate solution than to fix a problem later.

Tags: Healthcare, Vibration Consultant, Vibration Isolation, Vibration Measurement

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 3:39 pm and is filed under Healthcare. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.