Rice Memorial Hospital in Willmar, Minn., uses red stop sign stickers to indicate a no-interuption zone, according to an article on the Prairie Business website.

A stop sign taped to the counter reminds the Rice pharmacy staff when someone is engaged in a no-talk task. As part of ongoing efforts to increase patient safety, the pharmacy has adopted several measures to reduce distractions and interruptions. Similar steps have been taken in the hospital laboratory.

More than a year into the implementation of the Rice Hospital pharmacy’s no-talk initiative, it seems to be successful in helping reduce workplace distractions, according to the article.

The signs have helped raise the staff’s awareness of when their colleagues shouldn’t be distracted and when a message can be delivered later or handled by someone else, Carnie Allex, pharmacy director, said in the article.

Staff came up with some inexpensive visual cues — a red sign, a taped area on the floor — to signal that when someone is working in the no-interruption zone, “you can’t talk to them until they talk to you,” Jason Mayer, laboratory director, said. “It’s putting the person who’s there in control of the situation.”

Read the article.