Why are there stoplights on the wall?

Yep, that is the latest question asked as people enter our ICU at the hospital.

There are large yellow traffic lights with the standard green, yellow and red lights on them hanging on the walls on all the nursing units at the hospital. Why? Noise detectors.

I'll be the first to agree that it is freaking noisy in the hospital, especially during shift change because there is typically double the staff and half of them are talking and giving report on their patients. It also seems that many times during this short 30 minutes is when almost every patient hits the call light and family members call to ask for updates on the patients. Also, xray technicians are roaming and doing the scheduled portable xrays of all our ventillated patients. Pharmacy is dropping medications due at 8am. It can be utter chaos during that 30 minutes.

So, management is on a kick to reduce noise and help the patient's stay be more pleasant. They are even asking us to provide ear plugs to our more alert and awake patients to help them get a better night sleep. Sounds great, right?

Well, except the first week these stop lights were in place, we actually created more noise. Every person who came through that week had to ask what was the traffic light for. We had to explain the theory about quieter units. Then we got to demonstrate how the light worked. If you make a sound loud enough, the red light comes off and emits a loud siren wail. Yep, the noise detector actually makes noise (louder and quite obnoxious) to let you know you are making noise.

Ahhhh, the irony. It made me smile a bit more that week, but now the lights are old hat and it is still noisy and the light goes yellow very often, but never really emits the red siren wail. And, some people have figured out how to adjust the noise detector so it never really goes off.

Oh, and no one knows where all the ear plugs went.