Coping in the Emergency Room

In some alternate life, I would be writing academic papers about all of the systems humans set up in different settings. Emergency rooms are an example, where elaborate methods are carried out day after day with specialized equipment and supplies, all stored and disposed of in standardized ways. I'm sure recording the details of a single ER would fill a book.

But for today, I have just one small example: The triage nurse's station at a Level 1 Trauma Center comes equipped with one of these:


It's a "Cope Tote," and as the handwritten note to the right says, "These items should NOT be handed out for toys in Triage. DISTRACTION ITEMS ONLY."

All of those notes adhered to the bag tell a story about a perceived system failure: the toys are given out to children and they don't find their way back to the bag. Someone thought that applying strips of all-caps type and then an extra note would make it more likely there would be less material loss. Maybe the parents would make the kids give the toys back more often because of the notes?

I wonder if it works.