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Human Factors and Operating Room Design Challenges

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Surgical Patient Care

Abstract

Diffusing innovations from other industries have been suggested as a source to improve safety and quality of surgical patient care. Operating rooms are high-risk areas for preventable patient harm. Many studies focus on teaching, training, and changing staff behaviour as an approach to improvement. Most safety improvements in other high-risk industries, however, first focus on work area design before attempting to change behaviour. Design can purposefully shape behaviour towards more sustainable practices and improve teamwork dynamics and situational awareness. Human factor engineering, concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, can help in ‘mistake proofing’ by changing designs to make processes more reliable and effective. The field of design and human factor engineering can assist improving safety in the operating room. The application of these principles will be demonstrated in two case studies: Effects of operating floor marking on the position of surgical devices to promote clean air flow compliance and minimize infection risks, and use of video feedback and computer-assisted systems using video imaging technology to improve sensomotor and non-technical skills.

“Reliable human-system interaction will be best achieved by designing interfaces that minimize the potential for control interference and support recovery from errors”.

—Charles Vincent and René Amalberti, from Vincent C, Amalberti R. Safer healthcare: strategies for the real world. Springer Open, 2016:55.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Benchmarking with aviation was part of a larger safety focus; for details see de Korne et al. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf 2010;36(8):339–347, ref. [48].

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Innovation & Care Transformation, KK Women’s & Children’s Hospital, 100 Bukit Timah Road, Singapore, 229899, Singapore

    Dirk F. de Korne PhD, MSc

  2. Operating Theatre, Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC), 11, Third Hospital Avenue, Singapore, 168751, Singapore

    Huey Peng Loh MHA

  3. Department of Quality, Safety, & Risk Management, KK Women’s & Children’s Hospital, 100 Bukit Timah Road, Singapore, 229899, Singapore

    Shanqing Yin PhD, BSc

Authors
  1. Dirk F. de Korne PhD, MSc
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  2. Huey Peng Loh MHA
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  3. Shanqing Yin PhD, BSc
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Correspondence to Dirk F. de Korne PhD, MSc .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety & Quality, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Juan A. Sanchez

  2. Children’s Cardiomyopathy Foundation and Kyle John Rymiszewski Research Scholar, Children’s Hospital of Michigan, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA

    Paul Barach

  3. Department of Surgery Center for Healthcare Studies Institute for Public Health and Medicine Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA

    Julie K. Johnson

  4. Division of Cardiovascular Surgery Johns Hopkins All Children’s Heart Institute Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, Johns Hopkins University, Saint Petersburg, FL, USA

    Jeffrey P. Jacobs

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de Korne, D.F., Loh, H.P., Yin, S. (2017). Human Factors and Operating Room Design Challenges. In: Sanchez, J., Barach, P., Johnson, J., Jacobs, J. (eds) Surgical Patient Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44010-1_24

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