Value of human factors to medication and patient safety in the intensive care unit. Crit Care Med 2010 Jun;38(6 Suppl):S90-6
Date
06/04/2010Pubmed ID
20502180Pubmed Central ID
PMC4455947DOI
10.1097/CCM.0b013e3181dd8de2Scopus ID
2-s2.0-77953049911 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 48 CitationsAbstract
Conventional wisdom suggests that the "human factor" in critical care environments is reason for inadequate medication and patient safety. "Human factors" (or human factors engineering) is also a scientific discipline and practice of improving human performance. Using decades of human factors research, this paper evaluates a range of common beliefs about patient safety through a human factors lens. This evaluation demonstrates that human factors provides a framework for understanding safety failures in critical care settings, offers insights into how to improve medication and patient safety, and reminds us that the "human factor" in critical care units is what allows these time-pressured, information-intense, mentally challenging, interruption-laden, and life-or-death environments to function so safely so much of the time.
Author List
Scanlon MC, Karsh BTAuthor
Matthew C. Scanlon MD Professor in the Pediatrics department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Critical CareGuideline Adherence
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Humans
Intensive Care Units
Medication Errors
Patient Care Team
Practice Guidelines as Topic
Quality Control
Safety Management
United States
Workload
