Case Studies, Medical

Medical / Doctor Treatment Room Soundproofing Insulation

Patients expect medical records to be kept private, but what about medical examination rooms, physician consultation surgeries? Typical construction and office buildings generally do not always include soundproofing as a given. It is not uncommon for patients waiting to see a healthcare professional in the examination room or office, to overhear another patient talking in the next room with the doctor. Where this can be a bit embarrassing if a patient runs into another patient in the waiting room or hall, it can be a more serious issue if a patient is discussing confidential issues that need to be kept private and is overheard in the next room by patients or staff.

Privacy and a good level of acoustic separation is essential and should be expected in any psychologist, psychiatrist office or doctors surgery and is certainly somewhere conversations should not be overheard by someone outside the door or in one of the adjoining offices. Acoustiblok Isolation Membranes of either 3mm or 6mm thickness should definitely be considered essential within partition walls in these types of offices / surgeries. This is of particular concern for psychotherapists and mental health professionals generally where heightened patient privacy protections apply because of the sensitivity of the information.

Sound mitigation can also help keep a physician’s practice or healthcare organisation out of legal complexities and prevent complaints.

In this particular case the medical practice required professional assistance to increase the acoustic insulation and privacy between differing rooms within multiple examination rooms. Acoustiblok Isolation Membrane was installed to all internal walls along with renewing solid doors with threshold and weather stripping on the bottom to prevent leakage.

Acoustiblok, an international award-winning material, is 3mm thick and can easily be applied to a standard stud wall and can result in more sound reduction than 200mm of poured concrete. Results are independent lab-certified. The thin pliable material is engineered not to deflect or absorb sound, but through a unique thermodynamic process. Acoustiblok transforms the sound energy into trace amounts of inaudible internal friction energy into heat.

For the medical surgery, Acoustiblok material was applied to the walls and importantly up above the suspended ceiling to the upper deck. The specially formulated Acoustiblok caulking and tape were used as standard to form a permanent bond to all joints and penetrations to obtain rated sound reduction values (please see images).

“The medical professionals, indeed all of us were thrilled with the results. The office is now very quiet and there is no voice transfer between the walls inside the office or outside the door and hallway. The sound reduction was impressive and the price was reasonable for the quality and performance of the product. I have used Acoustiblok on other projects and will continue to use it on projects where noise is an issue in the future.”

Acoustiblok receive a lot of enquiries and instructions for office space generally including medical offices, audiology and healthcare organisations, lawyers, board rooms and other professionals where speech privacy is a major issue. One of benefits of using Acoustiblok in the walls is you don’t have to worry about the stringent environment inside the examination room or office nor put up with a major loss of space within.

Acoustiblok is a leader in sound control products and can offer not only the best products for the job, but can also custom design and fabricate certain products for specific needs where needed. Both acoustic isolation and acoustic calibration to balance internal acoustics from unwanted reflections.

Acoustiblok Material

Acoustiblok material is typically applied as part of layered wall, ceiling or floor construction. It is usually stapled to wood studs or screwed to metal studs prior to drywall. It has better sound deadening effectiveness than treatments with lead.

A typical 50mm x 10mm gypliner stud wall is recognised to achieve somewhere around 33 to 35 STC (Sound Transmission Class). Acoustiblok installed in the stud wall is lab certified at STC 53; better than 200mm of poured concrete (STC 51). To the human ear this represents over 97% in sound reduction! With 2 layers of Acoustiblok, the STC can be even higher. Acoustiblok is UL and ULC approved for use in over 400 wall and floor/ceiling assemblies.

Acoustiblok can be installed on studs before attaching drywall to reduce noise between rooms, over floor joists before the sub floor is attached to reduce the sound from walking (impact noise) as well as the noise created in the room. Also incorporated within roof designs to reduce noise from the likes of low flying airplanes or road noise.

Other uses may include –

Around plumbing pipes to reduce the sound of running water.
Home theatres / cinemas.
Commercial cinemas and film studios.
Multi-functional Audio / Visual type entertainment rooms.
Offices.
Apartments.

Multi occupancy dwellings / refurbishments.

Marine

QuietFibre For Additional Noise Control

To further reduce reflective or reverberant noise in rooms or areas installation of QuietFibre, a noise absorption material developed by Acoustiblok, is recommended. QuietFibre is engineered specifically for maximum noise absorbency (Noise Reduction Coefficient 1.00) and can be installed throughout the room or area. Natural or faced (white or black facing) QuietFibre is hydrophobic, doesn’t support mould, UV tolerant, non-fiberglass, easy to install, E-84 class A fire rated, 100% recyclable, environmentally-conscious, and is currently available in various sizes and densities for optimum performance, and is UL rated for floor, wall and ceiling applications.