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Abstract
Background and introduction The ED is often perceived as noisy. Excessive noise has deleterious effects on health and productivity. This study evaluated if a package of noise-reducing interventions altered workload, physical complaints, productivity and room acoustics.
Methods This was an observational pre-post implementation study. It was performed in our non-academic ED in the Netherlands from July 2021 to April 2022. Our primary objective was to determine if a combination of technical, acoustical and behavioural interventions was associated with improved staff well-being, and the secondary objective was to evaluate if these interventions resulted in better room acoustics. Moreover, the correlation of noise sensitivity with staff well-being and its effect on interventions were evaluated. All ED staff that were sufficiently exposed to the interventions received questionnaires to assess their well-being before and after the interventions. Room acoustics before and after interventions were expressed in reverberation time (seconds) and participant ratings are reflected as the mean of the sum of their Likert scale ratings.
Results 43 participants were included. At baseline, individual noise sensitivity was significantly correlated with physical complaints (r=0.409, p=0.006) and productivity (r=0.399, p=0.008). After the interventions, a reduction in reverberation time was reached in the central ED area (0.49 s, SD 0.06 s vs 0.39 s, SD 0.05; p<0.001). Participants experienced significantly less noise disturbance during work (sum score 7.28 vs 3.19; p<0.001). Productivity and physical complaints improved significantly (sum score 4.81 vs 2.70; p<0.001 and sum score −3.74 vs −8.14; p<0.001, respectively). Participants also showed a perceived change in behaviour (sum score −2.00 vs −4.70; p<0.001). There was no confounding by noise sensitivity nor age.
Conclusion The package of behavioural, acoustical and technical interventions was associated with increased staff well-being, reflected by decreased perception of noise, increased productivity, decreased physical complaints and observable changes in behaviour. Furthermore, the interventions positively influenced the room acoustics.
- emergency department
- management
- staff support
Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request.
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Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request.
Footnotes
Handling editor Edward Carlton
Contributors Conceptualisation, methodology and supervision were performed by KJ and CMV. Data curation, investigation and formal analysis, and writing (original draft preparation) were performed by SH. Funding acquisition was arranged by KJ and RDO'C. Project administration was organised by CMV. Writing (review and editing) was performed by SH, RDO'C, CMV and KJ. KJ is responsible for the overall content as guarantor.
Funding This study is partially funded by Spoedeisende Geneeskunde Onderzoeksfonds (SGOfonds).
Competing interests None declared.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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