F a c il it y

In open-plan offices speech is often the most distracting cause of noise even though a main aim of open-office design is to attenuate speech propagating between workstations so that it does not disturb the workers’ concentration (Larm et al., 2005). In order to achieve adequate speech privacy in open offices, appropriately designed noise-masking systems are often used (Hongisto, 2008). Noise-masking systems consist of loudspeakers located behind the suspended acoustical ceiling distributed throughout the office area; they generate a background noise over a certain area, to mask the unwanted sounds. That should result in increased speech privacy, eliminating the imposition of unwanted sound, and enhancing the general level of acoustical comfort and productivity in the space. This pilot study was done to evaluate the advantages and the disadvantages of the noise-masking system recently installed on one of the two floors in the Vancouver Coastal Health Community Health-Care facility (CHC). In order to achieve this general goal it was important to determine the effects of this noise-masking system on background-noise levels, speech privacy, and on the workers ’ performance