Colorado hospital looks at waiting room safety concerns

Boulder Community Health addresses complaints over patient safety in waiting areas


Responding to a recent rash of complaints regarding patient safety, Boulder Community Health is working to prevent the spread of communicable diseases in the waiting areas of the hospital's renovated east Boulder campus, according to an article on the Times Call website.

Some patients have complained that the waiting areas for general registration and the emergency department are too close together, putting potentially contagious patients in contact with healthy ones, the article said.

"There was nothing to segregate sick people from healthy people. I was going there for a surgical procedure. I don't need to walk through a room of flu patients on my way," a patient said in the article.

The hospital said it will increase signage in the area of the two distinct waiting rooms. That will include signs that more clearly direct patients to the appropriate check-in place, as well as signs aimed at educating patients on the use of hand sanitizers and masks, among other things, to prevent the spread of infection.

Read the article.

 

 



December 5, 2014


Topic Area: Safety


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