Hospital noise is associated with adverse effects on patients and staff. Communication through overhead paging is a major contributor to hospital noise. Replacing overhead paging with smartphones through a clinical mobility platform has the potential to reduce transitory noises in the hospital setting, though this result has not been described. The current study evaluated the impact of replacing overhead paging with a smartphone-based clinical mobility platform on transitory noise levels in a labor and delivery unit. Transitory noises were defined as sound levels greater than 10 dB above baseline, as recorded by a sound level meter. Prior to smartphone implementation, 77% of all sound levels at or above 60 dB were generated by overhead paging. Overhead pages occurred at an average rate of 3.17 per hour. Following smartphone implementation, overhead pages were eliminated and transitory noises decreased by two-thirds ( P < 0.001). The highest recorded sound level decreased from 76.54 to 57.34 dB following implementation. The percent of sounds that exceeded the thresholds recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency and International Noise Council decreased from 31.2% to 0.2% following implementation ( P < 0.001). Replacement of overhead paging with a clinical mobility platform that utilized smartphones was associated with a significant reduction in transitory noise. Clinical mobility implementation, as part of a noise reduction strategy, may be effective in other inpatient settings.

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Introduction: In-hospital cardiac arrest mortality has improved only modestly in the past decade. Prior studies support the role of earlier defibrillation and epinephrine administration to improve outcomes. Timely code team activation facilitates expedient interventions and may provide an opportunity for quality improvement. We sought to accelerate the time to code team activation and increase the early distribution of patient-specific data to improve targeted treatments. Methods: We mapped code blue buttons present behind each patient bed to patient data through the Electronic Health Record. Use of the code blue button sent patient-specific data including admitting diagnosis, recent procedural history, presence of difficult airway, and most recent potassium, bicarbonate, troponin, and hemoglobin levels through a secure text messaging system to the code blue teams’ smartphones. Simultaneously, the code blue button contacted the hospital operator who activated the code blue team through traditional methods including overhead page and pager alerts. We piloted the system on four medicine inpatient units from November 2019 through May 2022. In our analysis, we evaluated the time from code blue button press to smartphone message receipt vs overhead page, time to epinephrine administration, and survival to hospital discharge. Results: There were 35 cardiac arrest events on the participating hospital units. The code blue button was the primary mode of code team activation for 12/35 (34.3%) of the events. The code team received smartphone notifications a median of 78 seconds (IQR = 47-127 seconds) before traditional notifications. The initial rhythm was non-shockable for 34/35 (97.1%) of the patients. The median time to documented epinephrine administration for codes activated with or without the code button was 2:57 and 4:00 (IQR = 0:34-6:07 vs. 2:07-4:30; p = 0.89). Survival to hospital discharge was 3/12 (25.0%) for codes activated with the code button and 4/23 (17.4%) when activated by other methods (p = 0.61). Conclusion: Implementation of a smartphone-based code button activated notification system reduced the time to code team activation by over one minute. Further evaluation in larger cohorts is necessary to assess the effect on patient outcomes.