Hearing Test Room or an Audiology Booth can be described as a room within a room as these are designed and built inside the constructed building for soundproofing purpose as the hearing tests must be performed in extremely quiet surroundings. These tests can last around an hour and any external sounds will require the complete test to be performed again thereby costing a lot of time and resources.
These specialised hearing test rooms in a hospital are raised from the structure below using special rubber blocks to minimise any sound or vibrations travelling within the building structure. For that reason, when new facilities are planned, the floor for these rooms is dropped between 80mm to 100mm so that the finished room floor levels with the rest of the building. Otherwise the rooms will be a step up to enter.
Location for such hearing test rooms in a hospital should be away from heavy foot traffic areas such as main corridors and any services that run in the ceiling voids such as soiled water pipes must be avoided as the noise of water dropping will affect the strict acoustic criteria required.
For enhanced sound insulation, these rooms have two doors, generally one opening outwards and the other inwards.
The floor and wall interior are of soft finish to absorb sound and create a sound proof atmosphere within the hospital building.
As the room stays closed for long periods of time, human body heat, lighting and any equipment generating heat can significantly increase the room temperature, thereby requiring cooling (comfort cooling, air-conditioning).
Ventilation ducts and lighting (digital) are also special to ensure there are no mechanical noises in the room. Ventilation ducts should not create any sound due as part of their operational procedure (opening/closing of vents or contraction and expansion due to cooling.)
These rooms should also not be too far away from where the external cooling equipment will be located as the cooling units’ size will be dependent on the length from the room.
Adjacent to these rooms is normally an observation room to monitor the tests, with a one way viewing glass so patients are not disturbed, especially children, to ensure the reading are only due to hearing and not due to any visual signals.
This then requires an audio-visual patch panel under the viewing glass pane to connect the microphone and headsets for one way communication from the observation room to the clinician in the test room in case any instructions need to be given from the outside, discretely.
These hearing test rooms/booths can be either small (to accommodate a table and 2 people seating) or larger based on purpose built design.
Lastly, do ensure that all the materials to build these hearing test rooms inside the built up room are from recycled and re-recyclable materials.
About the Author:
Harry McQue is a hospital Design & Equipment Manager with Post Graduate degrees in business management and information technology. Harry has 20+ years of international experience ranging from working on hospital projects in Dubai (Middle East) to over £1 Billion hospital projects in the UK & Europe. You can benefit from his experience at: www.hospital-designs.com. If you have current or upcoming projects big or small or topics that you would like his advice on, you can get in touch via the Contact page.
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