• Srikant Nannapaneni, Sarah J Lee, Markos Kashiouris, Jennifer L Elmer, Lokendra K Thakur, Sarah B Nelson, Catherine T Bowron, Richard D Danielson, Salim Surani, and Kannan Ramar.
• Divison of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Mayo Clinic , Rochester, MN , USA.
• Hosp Pract (1995). 2015 Jan 1; 43 (2): 94-100.

AbstractNoise is a significant contributor to sleep disruption in the intensive care unit (ICU) that may result in increased patient morbidity such as delirium and prolonged length of stay in ICU. We conducted a pre-post intervention study in a 24-bed tertiary care academic medical ICU to reduce the mean noise levels. Baseline dosimeter recordings of ICU noise levels demonstrated a mean noise level of 54.2 A-weighted decibels (dBA) and peak noise levels of 109.9 dBA, well above the Environmental Protection Agency's recommended levels. There were 1735 episodes of "defects" (maximum noise levels > 60 dBA). Following implementation of multipronged interventions, although the mean noise levels did not change significantly between pre- and post-intervention (54.2 vs 53.8 dBA; p = 0.96), there was a significant reduction in the number of "defects" post-intervention (1735 vs 1289, p ≤ 0.000), and the providers felt that the patients were sleeping longer in the ICU post-intervention.

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