Prepared By: Sarah Rothwell

Human Factors in Healthcare: An Introduction

What is Human Factors?
The study of Human Factors Engineering is a systematic and standardized methodology applied to evaluating human interactions with teams, technologies, and environments. By understanding human abilities, human limitations, and other human characteristics that are relevant to design and processes (reaction times, training times, transfer of skills, etc), informed decisions for the most appropriate systems and technologies can be made. Human Factors Engineering applies human factors information to the design of tools, machines, systems, tasks, jobs, and environments for safe, comfortable and effective human use. The goal of incorporating Human Factors into the healthcare environment includes the following: 1. Human Factors provides systematic methods to understand and address hazards in work environments to increase safety by reducing errors resulting from inattention, workload, distractions, and fatigue. 2. Human Factors identifies process improvement opportunities that positively influence the safety, efficiency, and overall wellness of the hospital environment. 3. Human Factors analyzes the potential adoption of new technologies in healthcare while validating user interaction and safe performance in the procurement process.

Use of Human Factors in Healthcare:

Workflow Analysis Description Evaluation of workflow through ethnographic research methods and cognitive task analyses to understand the real world condition. A strong focus is placed on patient safety and staff wellbeing, in addition to efficiency. Evaluation of undesirable events to determine underlying causes and recommend strategies to improve safety issues. Supplement Request for Proposals: Perform Project Example(s) Medication reconciliation, code blue processes, improvement of user adoption for IT systems

Root Cause Analysis

Adverse event investigation, narcotic reconciliation, bed entrapment Smart infusion pumps,

Equipment

Procuremen t

user needs assessment to define device requirements to support safe and effective use. Equipment Evaluations: Assess the usability of a device using evaluation methods that examine the appropriateness and ease of use of the device in the expected environment. This also includes system based evaluations to assess impact of device when used alongside other equipment or IT systems. Equipment Implementation Strategies: Provide recommendations based on workflow and user needs to improve end user adoption

electronic healthcare records, anesthesia machines, patient monitors, medication carts,

Facility Design

Provide design recommendations for new and existing physical spaces based on workflow and environment assessments. This can also include usability evaluations where users participate in realistic scenarios within a simulated environment to assess the appropriateness of certain designs in meeting end user needs. Development of tools to improve the effectiveness of communication. Communication strategies include both human-to-human interactions and humanto-technology interactions. Development of user centered training material that focuses on end user workflow and mitigation of common use errors

Patient unit design strategies to reduce hospital acquired infections, Operating Room and procedural room design, medication preparation area design Safe handovers, surgical and procedure safety check lists, dashboards, medication labels, bedside alarm management, user interface design Smart infusion pumps, anesthesia machines

Communica tion

Training Design