Reasonably Safe Hospital Floor |
Warning: Enter at Your Own Peril |
All rooms are within earshot of a nurses' station (circular design or substations). |
There is one nurses' station for the entire floor. Some rooms are not within earshot. |
Emergency equipment is present and working. |
Emergency equipment is missing or broken. |
Each floor has what it needs. |
Emergency equipment is shared with another floor. |
All required supplies are on hand. |
Some supplies are missing or stored elsewhere. |
All call lights are answered immediately. |
Call lights flash unanswered for more than two minutes. |
Nurses are satisfied with staffing levels. |
Nurses are filing "unsafe staffing" reports with the supervisors. |
All nurses' procedure skill levels are checked. |
Skill level checks are not consistently up to date. |
Nurses answer interview questions. |
Nurses refuse to answer questions. |
The attending physician visits with the patient daily. |
The attending physician rarely or never sees the patient. |
The primary physician coordinates all medical care. |
Medical care is fragmented-there is no coordination. |