In caring for the total person, doctors have recognized that noise hinders recuperation by interfering with rest. The medical profession intuitively urges adequate rest and sleep for patients recuperating from acute illness or surgery. Questions are currently being asked about the impact of noisy hospitals on coronary patients. Physicians now wish to put their intuitively wise judgment on a firmer basis. At Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, it was demonstrated that one of the reasons patients couldn't rest after open-heart surgery was the acoustical environment: they spent three to five days in a tile-lined recovery room "surrounded by a monotonous hissing noise." Insiders long have referred to hospitals as "acoustical torture chambers."
In 1963 the Public Health Service reported that "hospital patient rooms are noisier than most residential sleeping areas in cities or suburbs. The noise levels in a typical patient room are above those recommended for sleeping areas in residences."
"Quiet, Hospital" signs do not apply to jets, jackhammers, and trucks.
There are times when hospitals are so noisy that doctors are forced to take unnecessary and undesirable X-rays because they cannot use the stethoscope for diagnosis. Patients are sometimes given sleeping pills just to keep them from complaining about slamming doors, dropped bedpans, staff conversations, shrill telephone bells, and data-stamping machines in the nurses' stations.
If noise reduces chances of survival—and can be controlled, doctors are saying—why not control it and increase the chances of survival? This is easier said than done, but some first steps are being taken. The National Heart Institute is sponsoring an $11-million study to investigate the best environmental conditions for patients' rooms, including optimum levels of sound. Someday the environment inside an ambulance will be investigated, and that investigation will be the beginning of the end of today's strident sirens.
After he leaves the hospital, the patient's home becomes the focus for recuperation. Dr. Christiaan Barnard, the heart transplant pioneer, noted the relationship between recuperation and noise in the home when he made arrangements for a silencing device for Dr. Blaiberg's family telephone.
Can noise cause a heart attack? Probably not directly. Can noise contribute to heart disease and create an environment hostile to recovery? The answer seems to be yes. The millions of Americans with diagnosed or suspected heart disease would seem to have a stake in noise abatement.