Noise mitigation using facade design on Indonesian Hospital: Dr. Soetomo General Hospital case study

Noise exposure in a hospital is known to have considerable impact not only to the healthy workers, but the ability for speedy recovery to the patients as well. However, Indonesian hospital low frequency noise emission sources are conversations of families of a patient stay overnight nearby the hospital ward (murmur), and utilities. In this paper, we present our recent study on façade design to mitigate the noise emission at the Dr. Soetomo General Hospital. The aim is twofold, namely to investigate the noise characteristics of each individual source and to predict the effectiveness of façade designed specifically for murmur to utilities noise. Firstly, we measured the loudness level of the murmur as well as background noise continuously for 24 hours and the frequency characteristic of the noises. Then, we propose a new façade design considering the effectiveness of reducing the murmur noise. The results showed that the new façade design was capable to reduce to 13 dB SPL from the current façade. The results suggest that the proposed design may potentially abate the noise without sacrificing the natural air flow of the recovery room.