Challenges And Opportunities For Improving Patient Safety Through Human Factors And Systems Engineering

• DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2018.0723
• Publication Date: 2018-11-05T20:56:20Z
• Authors: Pascale Carayon; Abigail Wooldridge; Bat-Zion Hose; Megan Salwei; James Benneyan
• Keywords: Sociotechnical system; SAFER

Despite progress on patient safety since the publication of Institute Medicine's 1999 report, To Err Is Human, significant problems remain. Human factors and systems engineering (HF/SE) has been increasingly recognized advocated for its value in understanding, improving, redesigning processes safer care, especially complex interacting sociotechnical systems. However, broad awareness HF/SE adoption into improvement work have frustratingly slow. We provide an overview HF/SE, demonstrated to a wide range (in particular, medication safety), challenges broader implementation across health care. make variety recommendations maximize spread including formal informal education programs, greater by care organizations, expanded funding foster more clinician-engineer partnerships, coordinated national efforts design operationalize system spreading nationally.