By Healthcare Facilities Today

Valley Forge, Pa. – A new training course on healthcare acoustics, now available from CertainTeed Ceilings, provides architects and designers the latest science on how sound affects the healing process and outlines strategies for optimizing indoor environments for the best patient outcomes.

The free course, "Acoustic Ceilings in the Healthcare Segment," explains how evidence-based design is driving healthcare facility construction, the role of sound attenuation in protecting patient privacy, and LEED® for Healthcare as it relates to ceilings and acoustics. The course also describes Facility Guidelines Institute (FGI) guidelines for ceilings in healthcare environments.

According to a National Health Service survey of hospital patients, 40 percent noted noise was a major annoyance during their stay—rating as the most significant stressor over cleanliness, quality of food, privacy and amount of staff. Furthermore, poor acoustics can affect patient healing. In one Swedish study outlined in the course, readmission rates for cardiac patients were more than double when they had spent time in a sound reflective room versus a room with a sound-absorbent ceiling.

"Unwanted noise can be very costly for healthcare facilities, as it can lead to high readmission rates, high stress among staff, and medical errors," said Robert Marshall, manager, marketing technical services for CertainTeed Ceilings. "This course is designed to help today's building professionals understand the relationship between the physical structure and patient outcomes and come away with evidenced-based strategies for building better healing environments."

"Acoustic Ceilings in the Healthcare Segment" is registered with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Continuing Education System, as well as the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) Construction Education Network. It has also been approved by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED® professional credentialing program.

To schedule a CEU course presentation with a CertainTeed Ceilings architectural sales manager, call 800-233-8990.

CertainTeed offers more than 35 free courses for professionals that can be used to meet all standards of national and local continuing education learning units. For more information, visit www.certainteed.com/continuinged.

As experts in the science of sound, CertainTeed Ceilings serves as a single source for high-quality ceilings that create acoustically friendly, aesthetically captivating environments. Encompassing the Performa®, Ecophon® and Gyptone® brands along with Decoustics® — a leader in high-precision, custom-engineered solutions — the company offers the perfect balance of innovation, budget and beauty with products that range from basic high-performance panels to premium, customizable systems. Through its Environmental Acoustics design and research, CertainTeed Ceilings provides solutions that promote healthier interiors while having a smaller impact on the environment. The company offers ceiling panels with one of the highest concentrations of recycled content in the industry as well as a recycling program for used ceiling panels. CertainTeed Ceilings is the first ceilings manufacturer to issue Environmental Product Declarations through UL Environment and The Green Standard. For more information, visit www.certainteed.com/ceilings.

About CertainTeed

Through the responsible development of innovative and sustainable building products, CertainTeed, headquartered in Valley Forge, Pa., has helped shape the building products industry for more than 100 years. Founded in 1904 as General Roofing Manufacturing Company, the firm's slogan "Quality Made Certain, Satisfaction Guaranteed," quickly inspired the name CertainTeed. Today, CertainTeed® is North America’s leading brand of exterior and interior building products, including roofing, siding, fence, decking, railing, trim, insulation, gypsum and ceilings.

A subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, the world’s largest building products company, CertainTeed and its affiliates have more than 5,700 employees and more than 60 manufacturing facilities throughout the United States and Canada. For five consecutive years, the company has received top honors from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its contributions in protecting the environment and was most recently the recipient of the 2013 ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence Award. The group had total sales of approximately $3.3 billion in 2012. www.certainteed.com