Effect of Trauma Bay Curtains on Ambient Noise and Number of Staff Present During Trauma Resuscitations.

Abstract

Background: Elevated ambient noise levels during trauma resuscitation can disrupt team member communication, yet limited research has examined interventions to mitigate these noise levels.

Objective: This study aims to measure the effect of trauma bay curtains on noise levels and the number of staff present during trauma resuscitations.

Methods: This single-center prospective randomized study was conducted at a U.S. Western Pacific State Level I trauma center from April 2019 through September 2023. The population inclusion was adult trauma patients meeting alert or activation criteria. The designated trauma bay secondary outer curtain was closed at the end of 2 min in the intervention group and at the end of 4 min in the control group. A t-test was used to compare control and intervention groups. The outcome variables were decibel levels, and the number of people in the designated area was recorded at the end of each minute for 6 min.

Results: A total of n = 45 participants were included in this study. The control group (n = 19) had a mean of 9.89 decibels (SD = 8.42) compared to the intervention group (n = 24) with a mean of -1.50 decibels (SD = 5.29). These two groups had a statistically significant difference in average decibels and the total number of people between the first and fourth minute.

Conclusions: We found that visual interruption using a secondary curtain effectively reduced the number of people and noise levels in the periphery during resuscitation.