# Towards a Model of Safety and Care for Trauma Room Design

> **NIH AHRQ R18** · KENT STATE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $608,258

## Abstract

Abstract/Summary
As the third leading cause of death in the United States, traumatic injuries are inevitable, affecting 59% of
individuals under 44 years old. Level I trauma centers are designed to treat the most severe types of injuries.
The Joint Commission warns that 7-9% of deaths during patient resuscitation are due to preventable errors.
Many of these errors are related to issues related to the physical environment including inefficiencies,
interruptions, and disruptions. However, little is known regarding how the physical environment can support
improved patient safety outcomes in trauma rooms.
This Patient Safety Learning Lab (PSLL) project supports the mission of AHRQ by focusing on components of
the work system that lead to improved patient safety outcomes. The proposed PSLL will take a comprehensive
approach to study the dynamics among people, tasks, technology, organization, and the physical environment
in a trauma room, specifically as they relate to workflow, interruptions and disruptions, technology integration,
and sensory attributes. This study is novel in its approach to data collection and analyses. Specifically, this
project aims to (1) identify factors related to the physical environment that influence patient safety and efficient
care in trauma rooms; (2) develop a time- and cost-effective novel approach to capture observational data in
an autonomous and confidential manner to study work system components within trauma rooms; (3) develop
design strategies to address patient safety and efficient care and to integrate technology such that future
adaptability is maximized, as new models of patient safety emerge over time; (4) test proposed design
strategies; and (5) develop an evidence-based model, as an end product, for designing trauma rooms that
support efficient patient care while maintaining a safe environment.
Through a transdisciplinary collaboration between Kent State University's Healthcare Design, Nursing, and
Computer Science programs and Cleveland Clinic Akron General, the study will use the Systems Engineering
Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) model to investigate obstacles to improved patient safety outcomes in
trauma rooms. In the long run, the developed design guide model is expected to contribute to patient safety in
trauma rooms by serving as a primary source to direct the design of the next generation of trauma rooms.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10251968
- **Project number:** 5R18HS027261-03
- **Recipient organization:** KENT STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Sara Bayramzadeh
- **Activity code:** R18 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** AHRQ
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $608,258
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-30 → 2023-09-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10251968

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10251968, Towards a Model of Safety and Care for Trauma Room Design (5R18HS027261-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10251968. Licensed CC0.

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