Conveners
A16.09 Acoustic Comfort in Hospitals: S120
- Maria Quinn
- Simone Secchi (Department of Architecture, University of Florence)
- Juan Negreira
- Andrea Giglio (European Acoustics Association Young Acousticians Network (YAN))
A16.09 Acoustic Comfort in Hospitals: P484
- Maria Quinn
- Andrea Giglio (European Acoustics Association Young Acousticians Network (YAN))
- Juan Negreira
- Simone Secchi (Department of Architecture, University of Florence)
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Veronica Amodeo (Department of Architecture - University of Florence)09/09/2026, 08:40A16 Room Acoustics
Acoustic comfort in hospitals is vital for staff performance and patient safety, yet it remains a critical challenge in healthcare design. This paper presents the preliminary results of the BRIC INAIL 2024 project (ID07), aimed at defining a standardized protocol to assess the extra-auditory effects of noise on healthcare workers. The study characterizes the acoustic environment of selected...
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Pasupathan Chithra Barani (Delft University of Technology)09/09/2026, 09:00A16 Room Acoustics
Hospital noise is a clinical concern, but average A weighted sound pressure levels (LAeq) do not explain how people experience sound in different departments. This study examined whether department type drives hospital soundscape quality by combining psychoacoustic measures with soundscape questionnaires based on ISO 12913. We collected 124 acoustic measurements and 86 questionnaire responses...
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Per Hiselius (Ecophon)09/09/2026, 09:20A16 Room Acoustics
The acoustic design of an intensive care unit should not only ensure low noise levels and short reverberation times to support effective communication and, as far as possible, reduce noise related stress for both patients and staff. In multi-bed patient rooms, it should also provide adequate acoustic privacy between patients. As these requirements can be partly contradictory from an acoustical...
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Domenico De Salvio (University of Bologna)09/09/2026, 09:40A16 Room Acoustics
Hospital noise severely impacts patient recovery and staff well-being. Traditional metrics fail to capture true perceived annoyance, while accurate psychoacoustic models require continuous audio recordings, violating clinical privacy constraints. Conversely, current intrusiveness standards (UNI/TS 11844) use privacy-compliant sound level meters but only evaluate energetic emergence, ignoring...
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Veronica Amodeo (Department of Architecture - University of Florence)10/09/2026, 15:00A16 Room Acoustics
This paper presents the findings from a Doctoral thesis in Architecture, investigating the impact of the sound environment on hospital patients’ well-being. Representative inpatient wards were selected within four Italian hospitals to analyze acoustic criticalities, noise sources, and the subjective experience of users, using a mixed-methods approach. The results highlight that WHO limits are...
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Elisa Nannipieri (Department of Architecture, University of Florence)10/09/2026, 15:00A16 Room Acoustics
In recent years, various studies have been conducted to measure noise levels in hospital settings; in most of these studies, noise levels were found to exceed the limits recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). The aim of this work was to determine, through a systematic review of scientific articles, typical noise levels in different types of hospital environments and to identify...
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