Due to HIPAA oral privacy laws, reasonable methods must be used to acoustically isolate patient rooms and reception areas so that sensitive medical information is not overheard. The physicians were particularly interested in materials and methods that would be cost effective and that would not interfere with medical equipment that must be mounted on the wall. Acoustics By Design was retained to design wall partition types and complete noise isolation measurements at the site to achieve excellent speech privacy. The Architect’s design challenge was to design a building that will accommodate future growth of the practice. – 12,500 square foot medical office building accommodating 6 family practice physicians – the main clinical spaces include 18 examination rooms, 2 minor surgery rooms, a laboratory and a diagnostic radiology room – two skylights allow natural light to flood the center of the building highlighting the main patient corridor, 2 waiting areas, and main lobby reception area – support spaces include staff locker room, utility rooms, patient and public toilets, and conferencing spaces.
