NOT QUIET ED: Personalised noise exposure in the Emergency Department
Tracks
Room 2
| Wednesday, December 2, 2026 |
| 1:30 PM - 1:50 PM |
| Concurrent Room 1 |
Overview
Dr. Anna Mysliborski
Speaker
Dr. Anna Mysliborski
Barwon Health
NOT QUIET ED: Personalised noise exposure in the Emergency Department
Abstract
Aim
To prospectively characterise noise exposure of emergency department (ED) staff using personal dosimetry, benchmarked against occupational guidelines, and identify variation by role, shift and zone to inform future human-factors-led acoustic redesign.
Methods
Prospective observational study over 16 weeks (August–November 2025) in the mixed ED of a large regional Victorian public hospital (~80,000 presentations/year). Five Class 2 personal noise dosimeters (SVANTEK SV104) were shoulder-worn by medical, nursing and clerical staff for full shifts, sampling one-second A and C-weighted sound pressure levels. Role, zone and shift allocations were randomised across six work groups, three shifts and seven days. Primary outcome noise exposure; LAEq,8h and LCPeak was benchmarked against the Australian workplace standard (<85dBA and LCPeak <140dBC)and World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations <35dBA.
Results
410 evaluable sessions were obtained (73% of 560 planned), distributed across all groups, zones and shifts. The overall mean of LAEq,8h of 74.5dB — was well above the WHO 35dBA hospital recommendation, above the 50dBA Australian workplace standard recommended for work requiring sustained concentration, and at the upper range for fast-paced conversational work. Every zone and every shift type exceeded the WHO recommendation. In the Sub-Group analysis the LAEq,8hr ranged between 71.7-75.8dB.
Discussion
ED staff routinely work in an acoustic environment incompatible with reliable verbal communication, patient rest and sensory accessibility — an imperfect fit between people, place and task. At 74.5dB(A), normal-voice speech risks being intelligible, with disproportionate impact on hearing-impaired, delirious and neurodivergent individuals. By reframing this ED noise environment as a psychosocial hazard as per new Safe Work Australia regulations, we support the need for the development of explicit acoustic targets in healthcare than go beyond hearing loss. Hospital Human-factors-led interventions — role-based alerting, alarm recalibration, low-stimulation cubicles and acoustic friendly design — are the perfect fit between HFE methods and a measurable clinical-safety problem.
To prospectively characterise noise exposure of emergency department (ED) staff using personal dosimetry, benchmarked against occupational guidelines, and identify variation by role, shift and zone to inform future human-factors-led acoustic redesign.
Methods
Prospective observational study over 16 weeks (August–November 2025) in the mixed ED of a large regional Victorian public hospital (~80,000 presentations/year). Five Class 2 personal noise dosimeters (SVANTEK SV104) were shoulder-worn by medical, nursing and clerical staff for full shifts, sampling one-second A and C-weighted sound pressure levels. Role, zone and shift allocations were randomised across six work groups, three shifts and seven days. Primary outcome noise exposure; LAEq,8h and LCPeak was benchmarked against the Australian workplace standard (<85dBA and LCPeak <140dBC)and World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations <35dBA.
Results
410 evaluable sessions were obtained (73% of 560 planned), distributed across all groups, zones and shifts. The overall mean of LAEq,8h of 74.5dB — was well above the WHO 35dBA hospital recommendation, above the 50dBA Australian workplace standard recommended for work requiring sustained concentration, and at the upper range for fast-paced conversational work. Every zone and every shift type exceeded the WHO recommendation. In the Sub-Group analysis the LAEq,8hr ranged between 71.7-75.8dB.
Discussion
ED staff routinely work in an acoustic environment incompatible with reliable verbal communication, patient rest and sensory accessibility — an imperfect fit between people, place and task. At 74.5dB(A), normal-voice speech risks being intelligible, with disproportionate impact on hearing-impaired, delirious and neurodivergent individuals. By reframing this ED noise environment as a psychosocial hazard as per new Safe Work Australia regulations, we support the need for the development of explicit acoustic targets in healthcare than go beyond hearing loss. Hospital Human-factors-led interventions — role-based alerting, alarm recalibration, low-stimulation cubicles and acoustic friendly design — are the perfect fit between HFE methods and a measurable clinical-safety problem.
Biography
Dr Anna Mysliborski is an Emergency Physician at University Hospital Geelong (Barwon Health) in regional Victoria. She trained initially in nursing, completing a Bachelor of Nursing at La Trobe University (2001), working clinically for over a decade — in Emergency and dabbling in occupational health — before completing her MBBS at the University of Wollongong in 2016 and being admitted as a Fellow of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine in 2024.
Dr Mysliborski holds the newly created ED Noise Reduction portfolio at Barwon Health Emergency Department, establishing and leading the QUIET ED QI Working Group, and represents the department on the organisation's Silent Hospital Committee. Her clinical and research interests centre on the sensory and acoustic clincal environment with goal of reducing psychosocial risk within in the clinical environment. She is committed to translating human factors and ergonomics evidence into pragmatic noise management redesign of the ED environment.
The work presented at HFESA 2026 began as a personal passion project to reduce invasive noise and distraction her colleagues and patients experience. It has led to a series of major research projects quantifying clinical multi-disciplinary noise exposure with a goal to reduced the acoustic landscape within the hospital landscape. Unable to secure local funding for the project, during annual leave in Europe in 2025 she travelled to Warsaw to meet the leadership team at SVANTEK, to pitch the study and propose an equipment loan. SVANTEK — a Polish manufacturer of acoustic instrumentation, and a company of personal significance to Dr Mysliborski as a Polish-born clinician. SVANTEK are well established in heavy industry, urban planning and aerospace, but not previously healthcare. Following the meeting, SVANTEK loaned five SV104 personal dosimeters, a calibrator and the Supervisor software package at no cost for twelve months, making this study possible.
