JCR Releases Safety and Design Book


A not-for-profit affiliate of The Joint Commission, Joint Commission Resources (JCR) has released a new book, Safe by Design: Designing Safety in Health Care Facilities, Processes, and Culture. The publication offers lessons learned from the National Learning Lab, a gathering of healthcare professionals from across the country that explored the issue of safety in hospital design. JCR created the book to help organizations design safety into their facilities by:

  • Understanding the development and application of safety design principles, including designing around latent conditions, active failures, design process recommendations, and design processes to enhance safety culture;

  • Involving caregivers such as nurses and physicians, architects, and patients in the design and construction of safe care environments; and

  • Learning from success by adapting practical and workable safety design strategies from healthcare organizations committed to designing safe environments.

http://healthcaredesi.wpengine.com/SafeDesign

The Center Releases Report on Reducing Nursing and Medication Errors

The Center for Health Design’s newest research report takes a look into the Effect of Environmental Design on Reducing Nursing Errors in Acute Care Settings. Written by members of the CHER Research Committee, the report includes a comprehensive review of empirical literature and interviews with nurses at seven hospitals—four in the Pacific Northwest and three that have been noted as providing enhanced efficiency.

The review and analysis demonstrated that the following environmental variables contribute to work place errors: spatial design, microenvironmental design, ergonomics, noise levels, lighting, color, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. Staffing levels, age, and health of workers were among the nonenvironmental variables associated with workplace errors. These variables contributed to errors through workers’ fatigue, stress, disruptions, distractions, and other mediating factors.

http://healthcaredesi.wpengine.com/EnvironmentalDesign

More Online Content and Tools

View floorplans. Many of the design firms and facilities in the September Showcase issue have submitted their floorplans, complete with elevations, landscape plans, and 3-D schematics. View these from the September 2007 issue Web page.

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