Thea Swayne / RCA Communication Art & Design
graphic guidance: information design for patient safety
This communication project explores the impact that better information design guidelines could have on improving the prescription blister pack and ensuring patient safety. General Practitioners in England issue more than 660 million prescriptions every year; an estimated 200 million prescriptions are issued in hospitals and the average community pharmacy dispenses up to 10,000 prescriptions every month. Not surprisingly, errors due to bad information design on the pack can occur when the patient is prescribed the drug and when they take a dose.
The project started with an analysis of individual patient errors and the compliance systems around them. Key issues such as ease of identification, dosage compliance and information degradation were highlighted. The ‘journey of the pack’ was then followed through visits to manufacturers, hospitals, pharmacies and patients. This identified further problems to look at including colour, type size/style and hierarchies of information. The blister pack was focused on as this is the most widely-used type of packaging for prescription-only medicines.
The exhibit shows the development of design guidance through exemplar packaging designs and a publication to disseminate and promote best practice. This book sets out the safety challenges that need to be addressed, and outlines a new design-led approach to reducing the incidence of medication errors attributed to confusing, complex and unwieldy information design on packaging. Guidance is provided for all those involved in designing, developing and delivering medication packaging. It is also relevant to people in medication procurement and regulation. Together, the book and the exemplars provide a foundation for error to be designed out of medication delivery before accidents occur.
Full details of the Information Design for Patient Safety book can be found on our publications page.
