Replacing ‘horrible beeps’ in hospitals can improve patient, clinician experience: McMaster researcher
Global News
'What we're doing is just tweaking the sounds that they can convey just as much or maybe even more useful information, but they don't sound so awful.'
Between the beeping of medical devices, opening and closing of doors, ringing of telephones, rolling of meal carts and constant calls on loudspeakers, hospitals are anything but quiet.
“It’s a cacophonous amount of noise,” said Dr. Joseph Schlesinger, an associate professor of anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. “The alarms are loud, they’re annoying. They don’t tell us what’s wrong.”
Schlesinger is the co-author of a new study out of McMaster University in Hamilton suggesting changing the sounds of medical devices can improve the quality of health-care delivery.
“We get desensitized, we get burnt out from it, and then the patients, it interrupts their sleep, they get stressed hearing alarms. Sleep deprivation can lead to ICU delirium and long-term cognitive impairment. So you have these really deleterious outcomes both for patients, families and clinicians,” he said.
In the study, published in the British Journal of Anesthesia, researchers compared standard flat beeps with alarm tones that mimic musical notes.
“Medical devices in hospitals make sounds to communicate with doctors and tell them important information about patients. Unfortunately, for historical reasons, they’ve chosen to use really, really terrible sounds. And so ICUs and operating rooms all over the world are flooded with these horrible beeps and boops,” said Michael Schutz, the study’s co-author and professor of music cognition and percussion at McMaster.
“What we’re doing is just tweaking the sounds that they can convey just as much or maybe even more useful information, but they don’t sound so awful.”
Schutz referred to data released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration indicating that issues with hospital alarms in the United States had contributed to more than 500 deaths between 2005 and 2008.
The motion won't mean the city is investing or accepting payment in cryptocurrency any time soon, but will instead direct staff to look into those possibilities.
Enbridge officials said in a statement that the reroute proposal has gone through rigorous reviews and studies.
A proposed deal that would see three tobacco giants pay out billions to provinces and territories, as well as smokers across Canada, has been approved by the companies' creditors.
Tokyo recently announced a four-day workweek policy in an effort to boost Japan’s record-low fertility rate - something that Canada is also struggling with.
More than 1,500 firefighters were battling the blaze, many working in steep canyons, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire.
Evidence has grown in recent years that highly processed foods are linked to a wide range of chronic health problems, like diabetes and heart disease.
Environment and Climate Change Canada has released its list of the top 10 most impactful weather events of 2024.
Fifteen charges under the federal Fisheries Act have been laid against Imperial Metals Corp. more than 10 years after a tailings pond collapsed the Mount Polley mine.
Many kids and teens are looking forward to the holidays with great excitement, but others find it a difficult time of year filled with anxiety, stress and loneliness. It’s something Alisa Simon, the chief youth officer at Kids Help Phone, says they watch for when school pauses for the winter break, noting, “we do see an increase...
Advocates and friends of a Nova Scotia woman who died from stage IV breast cancer are urging the province to update its screening policy for women with dense breast tissue.
The report estimates a cancer patient will face almost $33,000 on average in out-of-pocket cancer-related costs in their lifetime, including loss of income.