The effect of a safe zone on nurse interruptions, distractions, and medication administration errors.

Patient safety is a health care priority. Yet medical errors are ranked the eighth leading cause of death. Medication administration errors (MAEs) often result from multiple environmental and individual factors. This quality improvement initiative adapted a protocol based on airline industry safety measures to decrease nurse distractions and interruptions during medication administration, with the goal of decreasing MAEs. Sources of distractions, interruptions, and MAEs were measured pre and post intervention. Patient satisfaction scores were measured concurrently. Results of this initiative differ from previous studies in which similar interventions reduced both distractions and MAEs. An unexpected finding was dramatically increased patient satisfaction.