title: Simulating environmental and psychological acoustic factors of the operating room.
abstract: In this study, an operating room simulation environment was adapted to include quadraphonic speakers, which were used to recreate a composed clinical soundscape. To assess validity of the composed soundscape, several acoustic parameters of this simulated environment were acquired in the presence of alarms only, background noise only, or both. These parameters were also measured for comparison from size-matched operating rooms at Jackson Memorial Hospital. The parameters examined included sound level, reverberation time, and predictive metrics of speech intelligibility in quiet and noise. It was found that the sound levels and acoustic parameters were comparable between the simulated environment and the actual operating rooms. The impact of the background noise on the perception of medical alarms was then examined, and was found to have little impact on the audibility of the alarms. This study is a first in kind report of a comparison between the environmental and psychological acoustical parameters of a hospital simulation environment and actual operating rooms.
authors.affiliation: Music Engineering Technology, Frost School of Music, University of Miami, Founder's Hall Room 140, 1550 Brescia Avenue, Coral Gables, Florida 33146, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.affiliation: Anesthesiology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, 239 Ryder Trauma Center, Jackson Memorial Hospital, 1611 NW 12th Avenue, Miami, Florida 33136, USA.
authors.forename: Roman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dudaryk
authors.affiliation: Applied Research Institute, University of Illinois, 1901 South First Street, Suite D2, Champaign, Illinois 61820, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Ayers
authors.affiliation: Anesthesiology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, 253 Ryder Trauma Center, Jackson Memorial Hospital, 1611 NW 12th Avenue, Miami, Florida 33136, USA.
authors.forename: Richard R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: McNeer
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics / Q000295:instrumentation; D000669:Amplifiers, Electronic; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D056902:Clinical Alarms; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects; D005160:Facility Design and Construction; D006801:Humans; D009038:Motion; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D009873:Operating Rooms; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013067:Speech Perception; D014159:Transducers; D014732:Vibration