Let's assume that you learn that in your facility every unit has a slightly different design, and emergency call lights are in different places in various rooms. Could that be a problem? Absolutely! Staff might be delayed in being able to get help for a patient who deteriorates suddenly.
Here is a novel solution, taken from a hospital in Australia:
The red line leads your eyes right to the emergency call button. Simple and effective!
This picture is a great example of how the discipline of human factors can help us improve patient safety. As a discipline, human factors has been described as the intersection of psychology and engineering.
Many people use the term "human factors" incorrectly. It does not mean that we blame errors on humans. It does recognize that all humans are error-prone and that we need to design systems that prevent these errors.
Can we ever design a system that prevents all errors? No - healthcare is complex, with a dynamic human being at the center of it whose body is changing in response to disease. But the systems we have in place can definitely be safer than they are.
Human factors is a newer discipline, and few facilities have a human factors scientist on staff. Partnering with this discipline could help us to improve patient safety in ways that we probably can't even imagine.
If you are interested in learning more about human factors research, I encourage you to check out Dr. Sidney Dekker's work: http://sidneydekker.com/
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