From floor/ceiling assemblies to wall types and the HVAC system, all areas were designed with care.Ensuring speech privacy in sensitive areas, vibration isolation to sensitive lab spaces, and noisy mechanical equipment isolation were the main goals of our recommendations.

Design Challenges
Acoustic design for hospitals includes a different set of guidelines than other types of projects. We work to meet and exceed HIPAA guidelines in designing sensitive private spaces for conversation privacy and speech clarity. For these reasons, reception and consultation areas also need to be designed with care. This new hospital includes an MRI, which is sensitive to vibration of any kind. The large volume of noise generating tools and equipment in hospitals (the MRI itself produces levels of over 100 decibels) requires special care in design in preventing transmission of noise and vibration from equipment to sensitive spaces in the facility.

Solutions
We began our involvement with a site evaluation to determine the ambient vibration levels.  Recommendations were designed to isolate the MRI suite from the rest of the building. The reception area contained consultation areas adjacent to one another which required special treatments including partitions, walls, and ceilings to achieve speech privacy requirements. Drawings and details including demising wall and floor/ceiling assemblies, plumbing, and HVAC noise were developed to achieve the quietest performance which the budget allowed.

Comments
We worked closely with the team at NAC during the design phase. The results of this partnership ensures not only adherence to the budget, but effectiveness of our recommendations and the overall quality of the constructed building.