Mind the step!

One of my "thinker in residence" sponsors here in Australia is VMIA, the Victoria state government insurance agency.  I had just finished having a lovely cup of coffee and conversation with one of the agency's executives, where our topic had been risk assessment and mitigation.As I started to leave the coffee shop (not a state agency facility!), I stumbled and looked back to see a drop in the floor levels between two parts of the restaurant.  While I can be clumsy (just ask my soccer buddies!), usually I'm pretty adept at walking out of restaurants without suffering harm.  So, I looked back to reconstruct the situation.Here's the broad scene.  The waiter above has just stepped down into the lower portion of the shop.  And indeed, there is a large sign up and to the right warning patrons of the drop in floor height.The problem is a that there is a very eye-catching sign to the left, designed to draw your attention as you pass through this area.So, I didn't notice the warning sign to my right.  Also, the floor area is not well lit, and there is little color difference between the step and the floor below.Ok, that's the human factors set of circumstances. These are accidents waiting to happen.Now, let's turn to the people side.  As I stumbled, a clerk behind the counter noticed and smiled knowingly, as if to suggest that I was not the first to have this experience.  I went back to talk with another clerk and point out the problem.  Sh...
Source: Not running a hospital - Category: Hospital Management Source Type: blogs