Improving Patient Satisfaction with Quietness at Night: An Integrative Review

Despite the efforts to improve the environment of care in hospital settings by noise reducing interventions, building redesigns, and quiet hours, research maintains patients continue to report noise is problematic across all specialties in acute care settings. Patient satisfaction correlates to their perception of quality care and hospitals are economically impacted by their feedback on hospital rating surveys. Stagnant Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey results across the country indicate “Quiet at Night” is in need of attention to be prioritized, as it continues to be the lowest scoring line item on hospital rating surveys since its inception for incentivized reform. A national standard of best practices will improve patient satisfaction and ultimately change the culture of the hospital setting toward a quieter environment for rest and healing. The framework used to develop this review of literature was Melnyk’s Leveling of Evidence, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) and the methodology of Cooper. The multimodal intervention approach was found to be an effective best practice, as it addresses the issues related to poor “Quiet at Night” outcomes comprehensively. However, the intervention approach ought to incorporate pre-intervention preparations, such as a dissemination and implementation plan, to include multidiscipline stakeholder involvement