
Top Stories 
Published On July 23, 2010
CLINICAL RESEARCH
What's That Racket?
The sounds of talking and footsteps, overhead paging, and beeping equipment can add up to quite a cacophony.
72
Average daytime decibel level (about as loud as a vacuum cleaner), recorded in hospitals worldwide, of talking and footsteps, overhead paging, beeping IV pumps and cardiac monitors, telephones, moving bed rails and carts, and other sounds bouncing off the many hard surfaces
57
Average decibel level recorded during the day in hospitals in 1960
45
Maximum daytime decibel level for patient rooms recommended by the World Health Organization
0
Number of hospitals in the past 50 years whose decibel numbers have fallen within WHO noise guidelines
30
Decibel level above which noise disturbs sleep
133
Peak decibel level recorded in patient rooms during hospital shift changes at the Mayo Clinic
24
Percentage reduction in the peak noise level at the Mayo Clinic after administrators taught staffers the importance of speaking quietly and covering IV pump speakers with one’s hand while programming changes; restricted overhead paging; and required the use of padded patient-chart holders to prevent clattering
6
Typical number of alarms to which intensive-care-unit patients are hooked up
30
Percentage reduction in medical errors reported by one unit at the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit after it installed acoustical panels and decentralized its nurses’ stations
Dispatches

The Drugs Machines Create The idea of having computers design new therapies has slowly been gaining ground. In the COVID-19 crisis, it may have found its moment.

Podcast: Telemedicine’s Moment The ascendance of virtual and distanced care has taken place with extraordinary speed. Lee Schwamm discusses which innovations are likely to stick and some bumps in the road ahead.

What Is Coming Next? COVID-19 cases are again on the rise. MGH incident commander Ann Prestipino reflects on the road traveled so far and which next steps are critical.

Your New Job Is ... The new normal meant new tasks to be done. Those jobs were often filled by very unconventional candidates.

100 Days of Loneliness After 40 days in a coma, one COVID-19 patient faces what he feels is a bigger challenge—the isolation of treatment in a pandemic.

200 Years of Preparation Since its founding in 1811, MGH has both faced pandemics and learned from them.
