Human-Caused Sound Distractors and their Impact on Operating Room Team Function.
World J Surg
; 46(6): 1376-1382, 2022 06.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35347392
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Patient safety in the Operating Room (OR) depends on unobstructed team communication. Yet the typical OR is loud, containing numerous sounds from surgical machinery overlayed with human-caused sounds. Our objective was to compare machine vs human-caused sounds for their loudness and distraction, and potential impact on team communication.METHODS:
After surveying OR staff about sounds that interfere with job performance and team communication, we recorded 19 machine and 48 human-caused sounds measuring their acoustical intensity. We compared peak measures of machine vs human-caused sound loudness, using Student's t-test. We observed the effect of these sounds on OR staff in 59 live surgeries, rating level of interference with team function. We visually depicted competing sounds through a spectral analysis.RESULTS:
The survey response rate was 62.8%. 93% of respondents indicated that OR noise, especially human-caused sounds such as irrelevant conversations, interfere with team communication, hearing, and focus. OR peak decibel levels ranged from 56.8 dB (surgical packaging) to 105.0 dB (kicked metal stepstool). Human-caused sounds were comparable to machine-caused sounds in terms of mean peak dB levels (77.0 versus 73.8 dB, p = 0.32), yet were rated as more interfering with surgical team function. The spectral analysis illustrated both machine and human-caused sound sources obscuring the surgeon's instructions.CONCLUSIONS:
Avoidable human-caused sounds are a major source of disruption in the OR and interfere with communication and job performance. We recommend surgical team training to minimize these distractions.
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MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Quirófanos
/
Sonido
Límite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Año:
2022
Tipo del documento:
Article