Florida VA hospitals use "Yacker Tracker" because healthcare is noisy

Tampa Bay VA hospitals pump down the volume

By William R. Levesque, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Monday, February 6, 2012
Nurses might be talking up a storm outside a room. Doctors are paged. Intravenous alarms sound. Food carts rattle. Fingers pounding a computer keyboard echo like tiny jackhammers.

Jonathon Starkey, 47, said he has learned one thing about veterans hospitals through numerous operations for bad knees.

Health care is noisy.

But Tampa Bay's two veterans hospitals, the Bay Pines and James A. Haley medical centers, are testing devices that measure the decibel level on inpatient wards. Placed at nursing stations and looking like a red light signal, the device flashes red when the noise exceeds levels set by the hospital.

The device — so far, just three are installed, though more may follow — is called a "Yacker Tracker." And it can't come soon enough for Starkey, an Army veteran and Tampa resident.

"If you're sick or recovering from surgery, the thing you need more than anything is sleep," said Starkey, who has been treated at both Haley in Tampa and Bay Pines in Seminole. "But it can be as loud as a war zone. And it's annoying."

Department of Veterans Affairs officials say studies have repeatedly documented that noise can delay healing. One study noted a correlation between the increased use of painkillers and noisier hospital wards.
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