Quiet Time Improves the Patient Experience

A quiet environment promotes rest and healing but is often challenging to provide in a busy acute care setting. Improving quiet in the hospital for designated hours improves patient satisfaction. Such efforts have typically been the primary responsibility of the nursing staff.

Two medical units with consistently low Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) "always quiet" scores were chosen for this study.

A multidisciplinary team used Lean methods and the Model for Improvement to test interventions for quiet time (QT) and used HCAHPS "always quiet" scores as the primary outcome measure.

The team instituted nighttime and afternoon QT supported by rounding and scripting, dimming lights, lowering staff voices, offering a sleep menu at night, and replacing noisy wheels.

Quiet scores improved on both units after 11 months.

Noise in hospitals is often beyond the scope of nurse-driven improvement; however, a QT protocol led by nurses, developed by multiple stakeholders, and focused on changing expectations for quiet can lead to measurable improvements in patient perception of quiet.