Human Factors Psychology Commons^™

Human Factors Applied To Perioperative Process Improvement, Joseph R. Keebler, Elizabeth H. Lazzara, Elizabeth Blickensderfer, Thomas D. Looke

Publications

• Human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) is its own scientific discipline that can be applied to understanding performance in perioperative medicine.
• Humans are not perfect decision makers and are affected by a variety of factors that can greatly harm their ability to perform, including attention, bias, stress, and fatigue.
• HF/E has a unique perspective on human error, and HF/E can illustrate how moving away from blame can enhance safety.
• HF/E offers strategies for undertaking a systematic approach to assessment of work processes in perioperative medicine that can be used to increase safety and wellbeing of patients and providers.

Multicenter Handoff Collaborative, Philip E. Greilich, Joseph R. Keebler

Publications

Communication and team-based care are at the heart of patient safety. As anesthesia professionals, we witness this at its very best and worst when transferring patients to and from the operating room (see article by Dr. Lorinc on types of transfers in this issue). In response, we have an opportunity to take a leading role in redesigning the most ubiquitous teaming event in hospitals in a manner that promotes team-based behaviors. The impact of unreliable handoffs on communication failures and medical errors is well known. To combat this issue, mandates by The Joint Commission (TJC) in 2006 and the American …