Putting patient safety in the blueprint.
When St. Joseph's Community Hospital of West Bend (Wis.) decided to build a replacement facility, CEO John Reiling proposed a novel approach: Let improving patient safety guide the entire design process. Before ground was broken, St. Joseph's convened a learning lab that attracted some of the nation's leading experts on patient safety. Since then, staff from every sector of the hospital have helped to identify where errors occur, how work flow and processes can change to enhance safety and how a building can be designed to incorporate those improvements. Although St. Joseph's leaders say the goal is simply to provide the best facility for their community, it's likely that their patient-safety-driven design process will become a model for hospitals across the country.
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D006804:Ergonomics; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006749:Hospital Design and Construction / Q000592:standards*; D006764:Hospitals, Community; D006801:Humans; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control*; D017146:Models, Organizational; D015279:Organizational Culture; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D010362:Patients' Rooms; D010934:Planning Techniques; D017064:Process Assessment, Health Care; D017751:Safety Management; D014922:Wisconsin