Human Factors and Systems Safety Approaches in Health Care

Human factors engineering is the application of knowledge regarding human characteristics to the design of work systems.

The Federal Aviation Administration, a leader in human factors engineering, defines human factors as “a multidisciplinary effort to generate and compile information about human capabilities and limitations and apply that information to equipment, systems, software, facilities, procedures, jobs, environments, training, staffing, and personnel management to produce safe, comfortable, and effective human performance.”

Principles of human factors engineering are applicable for patient safety and quality improvement design processes and initiatives within all health care systems. Systems supported by such deliberate design promote safe, efficient, effective, and timely care by

• Making it easier to do the right thing
• Making it harder to do the wrong thing
• Reducing failure modes while not hiding or creating new ones
• Automating “routine” tasks, freeing up clinicians to focus on critical aspects of unstructured situations

Want to learn more about human factors and systems safety? Join us on Wednesday, April 25, 2012, at 2 pm EDT for the next Professional Learning Series webcast with featured faculty Rollin J. (Terry) Fairbanks, MD, MS, director, National Center for Human Factors Engineering in Healthcare, MedStar Institute for Innovation, Washington, DC; and associate professor of emergency medicine, Georgetown University.

Dr. Fairbanks, an emergency physician, human factors engineer/safety scientist, and a private pilot, specializes in applying safety engineering techniques and research methodology to medical systems. His presentation will touch upon how human factors engineering can impact safety, the implications of system design and IT design, and other issues related to the health care environment. He will also be available to answer questions from participants.

This session is approved for Continuing Education credits. Learn more or register online.

Human Factors and Systems Safety Approaches in Health Care
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 | 2 pm EDT
Register

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