Human Factors and Their Impact on Healthcare

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Latest Researches in Human Factors
Impact of Human Factors on Healthcare
The Absence of Human Factors in the Healthcare Segment
New Ideas for Human Factors in Healthcare
Conclusion
Reference List

Introduction

Nowadays, the healthcare industry is immense and provides an array of services to different layers of the population. To ensure its sufficient functioning, one could not underestimate paramount importance of Human Factors that aims at enhancing the quality of the provided services with the help of teamwork, tasks, workforce and its collaboration, culture, and organization of the hospital, as the sufficient knowledge of these elements has a vital impact on safety and quality (Rosenorm-Lanng 2015). Consequently, the primary goal of this paper is to discover recent researches in Human Factors, understand their impact on healthcare, evaluate the possible absence of this phenomenon, and suggest new ideas for its development with the help of the literature review. In the end, conclusions are drawn to summarize the main findings of the paper.

Latest Researches in Human Factors

To establish a foundation for discussion, World Health Organization (2017) states that Human Factors is a complex science that integrates a variety of disciplines such as leadership, medicine, management, anatomy, and physics to ensure effective collaboration of the workforce with equipment while prioritizing efficiency and creativity. These aspects underline that this discipline has a dramatic influence on the healthcare system and beneficial impact on its optimization. The integrity and unity of this phenomenon along with its dramatic effect on patient safety make this topic highly interesting for research.

Continuous technological development makes this discipline more advanced and complicated. For example, many researchers attempt to review interactions from dissimilar angles and discover a potential collaboration of humans with robots (Sheridan 2016). The individuals experience challenges in this segment due to the lack of know-how (Sheridan 2016). Thus, discovering this topic in the context of Human Factors is essential since it is the key to success and increases levels of safety and quality. At the same time, other studies tend to review the role of automated equipment and vehicles and sufficient coordination of processes as other critical spheres of Human Factors (Butchibabu et al. 2016; Erikson & Staton 2017). It is believed that making these transitions smooth will have a positive impact on the healthcare system while stating that Human Factors has an array of topics for research.

Impact of Human Factors on Healthcare

The previous sections show that Human Factors has a vital effect on the healthcare industry, and it makes processes more efficient and minimizes the percentage of medical mistakes. Without this discipline, the healthcare segment could not be as effective as it is today and would not experience continuous progress in a positive direction. One of the bright examples is the ability of this science to assist in redesigning the discharge process and planning (Carayon & Wood 2010).

Making this transition (a discharge) is always complicated, and it requires taking into account a plethora of disciplines such as engineering and leadership to make this process effective and advance collaboration between different members of the team. With the assistance of Human Factors, Boston Medical Center enhanced the flow and coordination of these processes while decreasing the number of dissatisfied patients and medical errors and improving patient safety.

Other examples can be related to designing an effective schedule to avoid shortage and burnout of the workforce, providing a plan of the communication process to new employees, and developing new software and equipment for surgeries such as IV pumps and electronic scalpels (World Health Organization, 2017). Overall, the cases mentioned above are only some examples of the positive effects of Human Factors. Nonetheless, their advantageous effects cannot be underestimated and pertain to the enhanced working environment, efficiency, and decreased levels of medical errors while triggering technological development and progress.

The Absence of Human Factors in the Healthcare Segment

The examples highlighted in the previous sections display that Human Factors play a pivotal role in the healthcare industry while having a positive impact on their innovation and development. Apart from that, it is possible to consider a “what-if” scenario when Human Factors is not an irreplaceable element in the industry. It could be assumed that not adopting this discipline from other spheres such as the military would lead to adverse consequences (World Health Organization 2017).

One of them could be the fact that the processes and planning would not be highly efficient since the management would not be able to review them from dissimilar perspectives and propose mutually beneficial solutions for the employees, management, and patients. Another aspect might pertain to the fact that the healthcare industry would disregard the technological progress and development and not adopt the life-changing inventions such as database systems. A combination of these matters would make hospitals and other medical institutions less flexible and could increase the number of medical errors and deaths. Overall, it could be said that the potential absence of Human Factors in Healthcare would lead to a high prevalence of different illnesses and diseases and escalating mortality and morbidity rates.

New Ideas for Human Factors in Healthcare

Due to the linkage of Human Factors to technological progress, its opportunities will continue to grow with this sphere. Consequently, there is an extended variety of options for its development. For example, it could continue researching Robot-Human interactions, as robots are the future of the world (Sheridan 2016). Focusing on the design and development of the implementation and integration plans can help automated systems and robots become important helpers in the healthcare segment. With the assistance of Human Factors, robots soon can appear in hospital wards and prescribe relevant medications and treatments to patients.

Other new ideas can be related to diversifying screening procedures and using Cloud Storage to maximize access to health records. Nonetheless, apart from a plethora of new opportunities, Human Factors should continue optimizing existent procedures and equipment such as alarms, checklists, and pumps to increase the overall levels of safety (Sheridan 2016). It could be said that Human Factors define a positive future of medicine and assists it is becoming more advanced and safe than it is today.

Conclusion

In the end, this research paper helped me understand that Human Factors could be considered as an irreplaceable and pivotal component of the healthcare segment. Its innovative nature assists this industry is becoming more advanced and developed, as it implies improving the quality of the provided services and levels of safety by ensuring sufficient collaboration between human beings and equipment. Its major benefits are not only connected to improved levels of safety but also imply the continuous development and optimization of the system and procedures. It could be assumed that without it, mortality and morbidity would increase, as medical institutions would not be able to comply with the rapid changes in technology.

Currently, the researchers review the possibilities to improve human-robot interactions and enhance the overall collaboration. These concepts could be considered as the future of healthcare, as successfully integrating robots in hospital wards will increase efficiency and safety. Overall, it could be said that Human Factors has a bright future since this discipline is vehemently linked to technological progress and innovation.

Reference List

Butchibabu, A, Sparano-Huiban, C., Sonenberg, L & Shah, J 2016, ‘Implicit coordination strategies for effective team communication’, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 1-11.

Carayon, P & Wood, K 2010, ‘Patient safety: the role of human factors and system engineering’, Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, vol. 153, no. 1, pp. 23-46.

Erikson, A & Staton, N 2017, ‘Takeover time in highly automated vehicles: noncritical transitions to and from manual control’, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, vol. 59, no. 4, pp. 1-17.

Rosenorm-Lanng, D 2015, Human factors in healthcare: level two, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Sheridan, T 2016, ‘Human-robot interaction: status and challenges’, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 1-8.

World Health Organization 2017, What is human factors and why is it important to patient safety?. Web.

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