"Duct Tape" by seanfraga via Flickr

We’ll do just about anything these days to reduce hospital costs and improve patient care. Even if it means going a bit low-tech. Is duct tape low-tech enough for you? That’s right. Good, old fashioned duct tape. You might have heard it fixes just about anything. In some cases, it also reminds nurses and others to stay a certain distance away from patients in specific isolation precautions without those professionals gowning, gloving, and masking – saving healthcare facilities bundles. When questions can be easily answered without patient contact, professionals can remain within the “red box” of duct tape without any personal protective equipment. The piloting healthcare facility even has research to back up the claim.

While we’re saving money, we might as well save lives, right? Medication errors injure over 1.5 million people every year. The nurse is the very last check in a long medication administration system process; nurse interruptions are a large factor in medication errors. Another facility has experimented with nurses wearing reflective sashes and vests while administering medications. The protocol signals colleagues and patients to not disturb nurses so they can focus on administering the right dose of the right medication to the right patient at the right time via the right route (aka the five rights). The program has other safety aspects, and there is moderate evidence proving its efficacy.

This is healthcare creativity at its finest – doing the best with the resources we have – and proving it.