New Children's Hospital: A Quieter Place

Squeaky cart wheels. Beeping monitors and pagers. Ringing telephones. Overhead announcements. Ongoing conversations.

 The Children's Hospital's new
 Neonatal Intensive Care
 Unit

With all the excess noise from caregivers,
telephones and pagers, the design and
acoustical changes in the Neonatal Intensive
Care Unit to decrease noise will have a
positive impact on the health of babies.
The quiet environment will support the babies'
overall brain development, physiological stability
and also will help them develop a regulated
sleep and wake cycle.

All are familiar, pervasive, distracting noises and an unwelcome reality in a children’s hospital.  

Studies report that excessive noise in hospitals leads to stress and burnout among hospital workers, increases the risk of errors because instructions aren't properly heard, and impedes the healing and recovery process for patients. 
 
The problem is complex, so The Children’s Hospital worked together closely with Design Architect Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership (ZGF), acoustics experts and architects to reduce noise problems at Children’s new hospital by making several changes, particularly in patient areas.
 
Everything from new technologies to sound acoustical design, to an integrated paging system (instead of overhead “public address” paging) will be implemented at our new facility to ensure Children’s best meets the needs of its staff to deliver better care and to enhance the comfort and experience of its patients.
 
“Building a new facility from the ground up presents Children’s with a unique advantage,” said Jerrod Milton, director of campus transition. “Instead of attempting to retrofit an existing facility with the infrastructure requirements needed to achieve a quieter hospital, Children’s proactively designed components into the architecture of the new hospital.”
 
Read more about Children's quieter hospital in The Denver Post