For people who are ill, the sound of silence can be a healing absence of distracting noise. Unfortunately, as anyone who has been hospitalized in Covington or Cincinnati can tell you, hospitals are anything but quiet.
As hospital administrators, doctors, and others try to find ways to reduce the risk of medical malpractice, they are looking more carefully at factors such as noise that can be detrimental to healing.
A recent article on MedCityNews.com written by a doctor pointed out that noise levels in hospitals are often much higher than people experience at home, and are frequently twice as high as the standard established by the World Health Organization for patients. The author noted that multiple studies have shown that quality and quantity of sleep is a significant factor in a patient’s recovery. When they get sufficient quality sleep, they heal faster and spend less time in hospitals.
If you’ve laid awake in a hospital, you know there’s much to listen to: doctors, nurses, and visitors in conversation, alarms going off, voices on the intercom, television sets, sounds of discomfort from other patients, and nurses and other hospital staff coming in to check your vital signs or draw blood, etc. The place where you need rest the most is often the place where it’s most difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep.
Of course, no matter how quiet a hospital room might be, healing and recovery is nearly impossible if the patient does not receive adequate care in other areas, such as diagnosis and medication administration. For those harmed by negligent doctors or negligent hospital staff, the road to regaining health can be long and painful. Covington medical malpractice attorneys at TLF: The Medical Injury Law Firm are available to discuss with you your legal options and the viability of your claim.