Patient Privacy
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) has brought unparalleled pressures on healthcare organizations to protect private and confidential information from disinterested third parties. Yet, often in the middle of noisy corridors and waiting rooms of hospitals and health care facilities, this same information needs to be quickly transferred from physician to nurse to family members for the care of the patient. Privacy is not only supposed to protect medical records, it is also to apply to conversations, both casual and formal. It is in the domain of speech privacy that the highest risk remains for patients and families to experience themselves exposed and vulnerable during a health crisis.
Solutions to this problem are not easily or completely solved by engineering or design specifications. It is ultimately the culture of the healthcare organization that determines the "sound" of a hospital.
The C.A.R.E. Channel offers a welcome veil of protection, allowing conversations to be enmeshed in the music in ways that third parties will not easily be able to overhear what is being said. It is the only environmental programming specifically produced for the healthcare setting and the only 24-hour channel designed to support the normal day-night cycle. The C.A.R.E. Channel supports confidentiality and privacy by creating an auditory veil.
For more information on improving patient privacy and reducing hospital noise, read Susan Mazer's articles on noise, or reference the HHS bibliography section for studies on this topic.
