Senior care and living facilities can benefit from being tranquil and peaceful environments. A calm environment helps support the well-being of residents, staff, and visitors while ensuring less disruption throughout the facility. 

While this may seem like a difficult task, it is possible to accomplish this through the use of sound masking. 

Implementing a sound masking system that emits low-level, ambient background noise can significantly enhance the acoustic environment, making voices and loud noises less disruptive and distracting. At Building Systems Solutions, we believe that healthcare facilities, particularly senior care facilities, can greatly benefit from this technology. 

Let us explain the benefits of sound masking in senior care facilities and how you can implement a system in your facility. 

Benefits of Sound Masking in Senior Care Facilities

Sound masking is an effective way to reduce disruptions and loud voices in any space. It also significantly improves privacy, which is important in healthcare and senior care facilities. 

Let’s look at the benefits of sound masking in detail. 

Enhanced Speech Privacy

Senior care facilities handle residents’ healthcare concerns, and sound masking can reduce the intelligibility of those conversations. This ensures that any discussions between residents and healthcare providers remain confidential. 

This is particularly important in shared rooms and common areas, where maintaining privacy can be challenging. Families and visitors can also benefit, as their conversations with the residents can remain more private from other residents and staff members. 

Improved Sleep Quality

By masking disruptive noises such as hallway conversations and equipment sounds, sound masking promotes better sleep for residents. 

Studies have shown that patients in environments with sound masking have improved sleep quality, which is crucial for overall health and recovery. 

Reduced Stress & Anxiety

A consistent ambient sound in a busy place, such as a senior care facility, can help lower stress levels and anxiety among residents. It works by minimizing sudden and jarring noises. This helps create a more calming atmosphere conducive to relaxation and well-being. 

Compliance With Regulations

For senior living facilities that provide healthcare, sound masking helps with compliance to HIPAA. Sound masking can ensure that resident health information is protected and not overheard by unauthorized individuals. 

Implementing Sound Masking Effectively

At Building Systems Solutions, we do not recommend trying to find an off-the-shelf solution for sound masking. The backbone of sound masking is that the emitted sound is calibrated for your specific space. 

In addition, our sound masking programs will adjust the volume of the sound as the volume in the space changes. This differs from a white noise machine, which plays a consistent, static sound at a constant volume, which can end up being more disruptive to some. 

That being said, a professional sound masking company can help determine your facility’s speech transmission index and control it with the right sound masking products. To do this, we’ll follow a specific process to get it right. 

Assess Acoustic Needs

First, the space’s acoustics need to be evaluated, taking into account the challenges of different areas within the facility. For example, dining areas, corridors, and private rooms each require tailored sound masking solutions to address the unique noise profiles. 

Strategic Placement of Sound Masking System Devices

Building Systems Solutions uses Soft dB products for our sound masking systems. 

After we have created your unique sound masking sound, we’ll install the sound masking speakers in locations where privacy and noise reduction are most needed, such as:

  • Reception and waiting areas

  • Hallways adjacent to resident rooms

  • Shared living spaces

  • Therapy and consultation rooms

Customize Sound Levels

From there, we will adjust the sound masking levels to suit the specific needs of the area, ensuring ambient noise is sufficient to mask unwanted sounds without being intrusive. 

Modern systems can automatically adapt to changes in the environment, maintaining optimal sound levels throughout the day. 

Enhance Your Senior Care Facility With Sound Masking 

By thoughtfully integrating sound masking into senior care facilities, administrators can create more peaceful and inviting environments that enhance the quality of life for residents. It can also help support the staff and visitors, creating a peaceful place to work and visit loved ones. Building Systems Solutions can help you achieve this. 

Sound masking has a high return on investment (ROI), which you can estimate for your facility using our sound masking ROI calculator. 

While a monetary ROI is great, the quality and reputation of your facility can also improve by being a peaceful and pleasant place to live. Let Building Systems Solutions help by creating a sound masking system for your senior care facility. 

Give us a call today at 763-502-1515, or request a quote online.