Do Working Conditions Affect Measures of Service Quality in Industries Other than Health Care?
Research in non-healthcare settings provides useful evidence for evaluating several areas of working conditions. Research on the effects of ambient noise in factories has provided evidence comparable to that from healthcare settings and has permitted us to judge the evidence to be sufficient to conclude that ambient noise does not affect patient safety. Most research on workplace colors and aesthetics has been conducted outside of healthcare but is sufficiently comparable to conclude that these factors also do not affect patient safety. Research conducted on organizational factors outside of health care also has been complementary to healthcare studies and contributes to a growing level of knowledge in this domain. These examples illustrate that research conducted outside of health care is particularly useful for answering questions about patient safety that have not been adequately studied in healthcare settings. If there is sufficient evidence to answer a key question for a particula
