Music a sound contribution to healing
Good Samaritan taking cacophony out of hospital care
By Samean Yun, Rocky Mountain News May 31, 2005
The sound of a loon, native to New Hampshire, is coming from what appear to be rocks in front of Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center, sitting smack dab in the middle of the rolling Colorado plains. It's perhaps incongruous, but the sound makes visitors feel as if they're inside a peaceful forest. Exempla consultant Don Campbell, a Boulder resident and the author of the best-selling bookThe Mozart Effect¨, has put together a library of world music to play at select locations inside the $175 million hospital. The sounds, at a cost of $3,000 a month, are designed to speed patient healing and relax and reduce stress for hospital staff and visitors.
"What we're trying to do is not have elevator music but elevating music," Campbell said.
The initiative comes as hospitals pay more attention to creating healing environments.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a report in June 2004 showing that improving building design and reducing noise in hospitals can help boost healing. The report found that hospital noise often exceeds recommended levels and suggested that loud paging systems and beeping medical devices may interfere with workers' satisfaction levels, reduce productivity and increase accidents.
So when Good Samaritan opened in December, it offered patients sweeping views of the mountains, plenty of natural light, private rooms and carpeted hallways to muffle sound. Beepers and cell phones were banned, and overhead paging is used only in emergencies. Even waiting-room televisions are on mute, replaced by Campbell's sound design.
"We . . . are committed to creating an environment that is a pleasant and relaxing place for (employees) to work," said Sandy Cavanagh, Exempla's vice president of community development.
Just inside the building, near a three-story plate glass window, the sound of piano notes is barely audible. That's by design. So are the five minutes of silence in the middle of the day.
"We're not overbombarding them with constant sound," Campbell said. Instead, he said, occasional bursts of music provide "sonic caffeine" at times when visitors are bored and anxious.
Standing in the chapel, Campbell explained how music affects the brain:
Rhythm, such as heavy drumming, affects the autonomic parts of the body -heartbeat, involuntary foot-tapping and breathing.
Harmony, the central pitch and chords in music, affects emotional relationships, the limbic system and the mid-brain.
Harmony plays a role "when we feel very comforted, a little emotional, our heart beats. It can even have a response on the T-cells," Campbell said.
| Soothing sounds and music emanate from a speaker rock outside the main entrance of Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette. Author andmusic educator Don Campbell, who designed a "prescriptive music" program at the the hospital, gave a tour to University of Colorado administrators Thursday. |
He cited impressionist music, harp music and new age music as examples of sound that can calm the nerves.
•Melody, a succession of musical tones, takes people into time and space and reorganizes the way people experience time, Campbell said. He pointed out the difference in how listening to a Bach cantata vs. Scott Joplin's ragtime makes people feel.
Campbell, who has authored nine books, came to music when he was 5 years old. He wants to bring music to the world as a resource for growth, development, health and celebration.
At the end of the hallway, next to the elevators, the sound of classical Spanish guitar-strumming can be heard. Campbell said the music helps visitors find their way.
" 'Go down the hall until you reach the guitars,' guards are known to say," Campbell said.
There's also special-occasion music. The hospital will play Brahms Lullaby when a new baby is delivered. When there are twins, the lullaby plays twice.
"It's kind of the knowledge that it's a new baby," said Mary Jackson, a spokeswoman for the hospital. "It just makes you stop and say that is so cool."
Music throughout the hospital is controlled in the basement by three players -no larger than a home stereo -that shuffle 9,000 pieces of music.
Campbell is constantly updating the selection. Next month, he plans to introduce three hours of choral music selected by a Catholic priest.
Campbell's "prescriptive music" program is becoming popular. He said he has been contacted by a New Jersey hospital, Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and the Cleveland Clinic for future prescriptive music programs.
He also is doing research on the music cure pillow, a kind of MP3 with speakers inside a fluffy down pillow.
Campbell said he is testing whether playing harp music before patients undergo surgery can lower blood pressure, reduce skin temperature and bring a general sense of relaxation. That would reduce the need for anesthesia.
Copyright 2005, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.
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