Development of method for simply measuring speech environment at community pharmacies

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23590622
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Medical sociology
• Research Institution: Nihon University
• Principal Investigator: KOYAMA Yumi 日本大学, 薬学部, 助手 (50318458)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): HANYU Toshiki 日本大学, 短期大学部, 教授 (70299981) ; HOSHI Kazuma 日本大学, 短期大学部, 助教 (50373171)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: スピーチプライバシー / 調剤薬局 / スピーチプライバシー臨界距離 / リスクマネージメント / 薬剤師 / 衝立 / 波動音響数値解析

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Patient information in medical facilities are all personal and confidential. To have adequate environment in health-care facilities, health-care professions should considered speech privacy for patients and health-care professionals to have a secure medication and to create a good working environment. Most of Japanese community pharmacies are small in space and constructed with an open-plan space which seems to be difficult to improve acoustic environment.
To establish a method that pharmacists can evaluate the state of the speech environment in their facilities, we analyzed and classified influencing factors which influence patient-pharmacist conversation such as the level of overhearing, congestion of waiting patients. Also, as the physical environmental aspect, we conducted the effects of sound insulation achieved by installing partitions on a counter, and we have proposed a speech privacy critical distance based on room acoustics.

Free Research Field

医歯薬学