DEEP SCOPE: A framework for safe healthcare design

Thinking in patient safety has evolved over time from more simplistic accident causation models to more robust frameworks of work system design. Throughout this evolution, less consideration has been given to the role of the built environment in supporting safety. The aim of this paper is to theoretically explore how we think about harm as a systems problem by mitigating the risk of adverse events through proactive healthcare facility design. We review the evolution of thinking in safety as a safety science. Using falls as a case study topic, we use a previously published model (SCOPE: Safety as Complexity of the Organization, People, and Environment) to develop an expanded framework. The resulting theoretical model and matrix, DEEP SCOPE (DEsigning with Ergonomic Principles), provide a way to synthesize design interventions into a systems-based model for healthcare facility design using human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) design principles. The DEEP SCOPE matrix is proposed to highlight the design of safe healthcare facilities as an ergonomic problem of design that fits the environment to the user by understanding built environments that support the “human” factor.