Administrators require data before they’ll consider major, system-wide changes, Dr. Cutler warns. Noise-reducing strategies that involve significant sums of money are viewed as a capital expense, “and [administrators] have to balance that against other capital expenses. If there was evidence that it affected patient outcomes, the trend would be for hospitals to improve [their efforts at noise control],” he explains.
Dr. Busch-Vishniac agrees that more research is needed. “That there aren’t more people working in this area is disturbing,” she observes. “We were really surprised at our findings. We thought it would be a quick fix and walk away.” TH
Norra MacReady is based in Southern California.