A human factors engineering paradigm for patient safety: designing to support the performance of the healthcare professional: Figure 1
Open accessAbstract
The goal of improving patient safety has led to a number of paradigms for directing improvement efforts. The main paradigms to date have focused on reducing injuries, reducing errors, or improving evidence based practice. In this paper a human factors engineering paradigm is proposed that focuses on designing systems to improve the performance of healthcare professionals and to reduce hazards. Both goals are necessary, but neither is sufficient to improve safety. We suggest that the road to patient and employee safety runs through the healthcare professional who delivers care. To that end, several arguments are provided to show that designing healthcare delivery systems to support healthcare professional performance and hazard reduction should yield significant patient safety benefits. The concepts of human performance and hazard reduction are explained.
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It was unclear from the definitions whether usefulness referred to enhanced performance process or enhanced performance outcomes.
“It was unclear from either definitions whether usefulness referred to enhanced performance process (e.g., fewer steps, more information for decision making) or enhanced performance outcomes (e.g., faster care, more accurate decisions) [116].”
From The Technology Acceptance Model: Its past and its future in health care (2010) · cites this paper as [116]
Suboptimal design and implementation of BCMAs can facilitate new medication administration hazards, lead clinicians to deviate from required safe-use protocols, reduce the technology's safety benefits, and enhance the probability of medication errors.
“These data show that as with all health care technologies, 24-29 suboptimal design and implementation of BCMAs can facilitate new medication administration hazards, 13-15,30-32 lead clinicians to deviate from required safe-use protocols, reduce the technology's safety benefits, 12-15 and enhance the probability of medication errors.”
From Workarounds to Barcode Medication Administration Systems: Their Occurrences, Causes, and Threats to Patient Safety (2008) · cites this paper as [27]
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- Authors
- Karsh, B.-T., Holden, R. J., Alper, S. J., & Or, C. K. L.
- Affiliations
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- Corresponding author
- Karsh, B-T
- Or, C K L
- ORCID
- Venue
- Quality in Health Care
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2006-12
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- suppl 1
- Pages
- i59-i65
- ISSN
- 1475-3898 (ISSN-L)
- 1475-3901
- PMC
- PMC2464866
- OpenAlex
- W2165855085
- Cited by
- 372
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 29 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 26 · 2013: 26 · 2012: 15
- FWCI
- 2.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- BMJ Quality & Safety (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- The HKU Scholars Hub (University of Hong Kong) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (R01 HS013610, 1 R01 HS013610)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Emergency Medical Services › Patient Safety and Medication Errors
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Family Practice › Clinical Reasoning and Diagnostic Skills
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Health Information Management › Healthcare Quality and Management
- Keywords
- patient safety, human factors engineering, hazard mitigation, health system design, human performance, staff safety, health care delivery systems
- MeSH terms
- Attitude of Health Personnel, Delivery of Health Care, Humans, Ergonomics, Organizational Innovation, Professional-Patient Relations, Systems Analysis, United States, Patient Satisfaction, Total Quality Management, Safety Management, Medical Errors
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