Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel
The staff at Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel is committed to providing high-quality patient care in a state-of-the-art healthcare environment. “Our entire facility was intentionally designed to promote patient healing, comfort, and privacy,” said Tracy Clouser, Director of Marketing for the hospital. “Everything from our building, to our policies, to our hand selected staff were assembled with the patient in mind.”
The 201,909 square foot hospital, spread across three stories, features expansive patient rooms, large floor to ceiling windows, nine-foot ceilings, and an interactive multimedia system that lets patients communicate with family members and learn more about their ailments. But while these features proved popular with patients, their design presented several acoustic challenges, leading to privacy and comfort issues.
The building’s sound problems didn’t end there. Connecting each area of the hospital are uniquely designed hallways, built with a slight curvature and including side-mounted lighting that allow nurses to see down their entire length from their stations. The hospital also includes a large lobby with a three-story atrium, featuring an all-glass front conducive to natural light. Unfortunately, neither the hallways nor lobby were built with patient privacy in mind, creating spaces where confidential information could easily be overheard.
Solution
“To ensure patient privacy and comfort throughout the hospital’s 83 patient rooms, 18 emergency room, the main lobby, and numerous hallways, nurses’ stations, and operating rooms, we deployed sound masking,” said John Crouch, Director of Facilities. Due to the unique design of the space and the hospital’s commitment to patient privacy and comfort, the best choice for Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel was a sound masking system from Biamp’s Cambridge line solutions, specifically QtPro.
Four Qt 600 systems were installed throughout the hospital, along with a network of 700 low-profile Qt emitters, which evenly disperse the low-level background noise that protects conversations and prevents distracting noise interruptions.
[It] works exactly as designed and is extremely easy to use.
JOHN CROUCH
Director of Facilities
Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel
Conclusion
With sound masking now deployed in over 70% of the facility, Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel not only provides the means to heal a patient’s body, but also promotes their emotional wellbeing. “We know the environment is an important aspect of the healing process,” said Clouser. “The QtPro sound masking system is a perfect example of how every detail of the hospital was carefully considered to promote patient healing and comfort.”
With no restrictions on visiting hours, the Qt 600 blocks out hallway noise, allowing patients to get a good night’s sleep. In addition, the system helps patients feel secure when having conversations about their private health information.
As a result of implementing sound masking, Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel now ranks in the 94th percentile for quietness among hospitals across the U.S. that utilize the Press Ganey patient satisfaction survey. “The system works exactly as designed and is extremely easy to use,” said Crouch.
