By Healthcare Facilities Today

The process of addressing patient safety begins at the design phase, according to an article on the Healthcare Design website. Healthcare systems have underlying "latent" conditions that may result in adverse events, such as injuries, errors and infections. When they occur in the physical environment, they are often incorporated into facilities during planning, design and construction, the article said. To address this possibility, The Center for Health Design (CHD) is developing a proactive safety risk assessment (SRA) that will help healthcare design stakeholders think about these issues upfront. This toolkit will support the requirement for a safety risk assessment that will be included in the 2014 edition of the Facility Guidelines Institute’s (FGI) Guidelines for Design and Construction of Hospitals and Outpatient Facilities. 

Read the article.