A Novel Approach to the Room of Errors (ROE): A Three-Dimensional Virtual Tour Activity to Spotlight Patient Safety Threats

Abstract

Background: Live simulation-based activities are effective tools in teaching situational awareness to improve patient safety training in healthcare settings. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic forced the discontinuation of these in-person sessions. We describe our solution to this challenge: an online interactive activity titled the "Virtual Room of Errors." The aim of this activity is to create an accessible and feasible method of educating healthcare providers about situational awareness in the hospital.Materials and Methods: We applied existing three-dimensional virtual tour technology used in the real estate sector to a hospital patient room with a standardized patient and 46 intentionally placed hazards. Healthcare providers and students from our institution accessed the room online through a link where they independently navigate, and document observed safety hazards.Results: In 2021 and 2022, a total of 510 learners completed the virtual Room of Errors (ROE). The virtual ROE increased annual participation in the activity, as compared to the in-person Room, and demonstrated learner satisfaction.Conclusions: The virtual ROE is an accessible, feasible, and cost-effective method of educating healthcare workers on situational awareness of preventable hazards. Furthermore, the activity is a sustainable way to reach a larger number of learners from multiple disciplines, even as in-person activities resume.

Evaluation of a Course to Teach Medical Students Latent Hazard Identification in the Operating Room

“…An unpaired, one-sided t-test was used to test if the performance of the experimental group was superior to that of the control group. A one-sided test was applied based on the expectation that the virtual training would improve performance, as was found in the previous study [7]. Further analysis was performed using an unpaired, twosided t-test to determine whether the mean number of mistakenly identified hazards was statistically different between the experimental and control groups.…”

“…Although all subjects were in the pre-clinical phase of medical school, prior knowledge of hazards in the OR may have varied among subjects. After the study was completed, we learned that a few subjects had been previously exposed to the hospital room virtual simulation training created by our group [7]; however, due to blinding, we did not know to which group they were assigned. There was some overlap in the latent hazards presented (e.g., patient identification label errors), so this exposure may have improved their performance during the physical OR simulation activity.…”

“…We previously conducted a trial of a three-dimensional (3D) virtual tour activity inspired by the "Room of Horrors," which originated as an in-person activity during which students identify hazards in a simulated hospital room. Our adaptation transformed this activity into a virtual platform highlighting patient safety threats in a standard hospital room [7]. Results from that study showed subjects were comfortable navigating the 3D virtual simulation platform and had improved hazard identification in a hospital room after completing the activity.…”