Rest for a Hospital’s Weary

There may be no rest for weary hospital patients. A new study shows a strong relationship between the number of loud sounds—80 decibels or greater—and sleep arousals among elderly patients in a hospital respiratory care unit.

The study, which was published in the journal Sleep, found that during an eight-hour period, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., loud noises markedly disrupted the sleep of patients. In fact, the patients spent a large percentage of their time in the hospital awake during the night.

A number of causes for the noise were noted—everything from ringing telephones at nurses stations to loud conversations and beepers going off. Also noted as a noise culprit: floorcare equipment, which is often used later in the evening when walkways are less populated.

Many hospitals use conventional electric, cord-based floor burnishers. The noise these machines make can be disturbing, especially at night when people are trying to sleep.

Additionally, because these machines are cord based, the user must plug, unplug, replug, and then set up the machine in each area where it is used. This not only takes time—as much as 15 minutes in lost worker productivity each time the plugging/unplugging procedure must be performed—but can contribute to the noise problem as well.

Taking steps to quiet their noisy facility, administrators of a San Diego hospital decided to replace some of their noisier cleaning tools with quieter, effective alternatives. When it came to floor machines, the quietest and most effective one they could find was Tornado’s all-new Battery Glazer 17.

The Battery Glazer 17 produces only 59 decibels of noise. This is actually less than “normal” office conversation. In fact, when the machine was tested, some nearby hospital staff and patients did not even realize it was on.

And because the machine is battery operated with a built-in recharger, the hassle and lost worker productivity associated with plugging and unplugging the unit are things of the past. The Battery Glazer 17 uses rechargeable, maintenance-free gel batteries that meet LEED-ES standards, making them environmentally responsible as well. And they last up to two hours before recharging, which amounts to as much as 15,000 square feet of cleaning power between charges.

“I have to say they [the hospital administrators] were quite impressed with the Battery Glazer 17,” says their distributor. “Not only is it quiet and cordless, it has a dust-control system that helps protect indoor air quality, picking up dust, dirt, and debris from the floor as it cleans. Protecting indoor air quality is important in a hospital; that alone would have probably sold them on the machine.”