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.

Physical environment is an important component in the acute care setting that can directly impact patient safety, nursing, and medication errors, as well as contribute to staff fatigue, stress, and burnout that result in errors. The study examines this issue in medical-surgical units through a literature review of 352 articles, books, and reports; a survey on nursing staff in four hospitals in the Pacific Northwest; focus groups with nursing, administration, and pharmacy staff members; and site visits to three selected facilities that have implemented design for enhanced patient safety and reduction of errors.

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.