health care facilities

With the passage of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), acoustical performance has become a more challenging part of the design of health care facilities. The Facility Guidelines Institute (FGI) provides more specific acoustical criteria that introduce further complexity into the design process. Some of the more difficult acoustical considerations in health care design include:

Typical Services

• Controlling HVAC Noise, often requiring the use of unique acoustic treatments such as plenums, low noise fans, and packless silencers.
• Reviewing the need for acoustic treatment in rooms with vibration-sensitive equipment such as MRI and CAT machines.
• Review design drawings for acoustic privacy where medically sensitive patient information is discussed.
• Analyze environmental noise caused by often large kilowatt emergency generator banks.

exemplary projects

Virtua Morrestown

The Virtua Health and Wellness Center in Moorestown, NJ provides access to physicians, exercise, nutrition, and support programs in a state-of-the-art facility. Working with Stantec Architecture, Hush Acoustics worked with the design team of the cardiology suite to ensure noise from the Enhanced External Counter-Pulsation (EECP) machines does not disrupt nearby spaces, and to minimize noise from rooftop mechanical equipment reaching treatment rooms.

Woodholme MOB

Washington Real Estate Investment Trust owns the Woodholme Medical Office Building in Baltimore, MD. Part of the services Hush Acoustics provided was to observe the installation of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner and provided recommendations to mitigate noise and vibration reaching other suites in the building.