Design and Patient Safety: What is The Impact?

Synopsis

Dean and Lucy will discuss how patient safety incidents can be linked to building/environment design: sensory triggers (noise, smells), poor ventilation, lack of fresh air and inaccessible facilities can all escalate distress and risk. The conference attendees will be asked whether they recognise these links to building design, and invited to share ideas: where do design decisions have the greatest impact on patient safety? Where is more attention needed? Patient Safety Partners may be able support with defining what ‘good’ design is to enhance patient safety — moving beyond containment toward compassionate, therapeutic definitions of safety, and centring lived experience in design decisions.