Low-hanging fruit for human factors design in infection prevention--still too high to reach?
Human factors design interventions have been suggested to mitigate infection risk in health care. Among such solutions, many are easily identified and theoretically simple and quick to realize. These are called low-hanging fruit. We present a case of infection risk associated with syringe manipulation that could easily be solved by introducing user-centered design solutions. Yet, organizational complexity makes implementation of such solutions hardly reachable. We therefore advocate embedding human factors macroergonomic expertise on an organizational level.
Division of Infectious Diseases and Infection Control, University Hospital of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Lauren
L
Clack
Division of Infectious Diseases and Infection Control, University Hospital of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Stefan P
SP
Kuster
Division of Infectious Diseases and Infection Control, University Hospital of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Heidi
H
Giger
Quality Management and Patient Safety, University Hospital of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Francesca
F
Giuliani
Division of Infectious Diseases and Infection Control, University Hospital of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. Electronic address: hugo.sax@mac.com.
Hugo
H
Sax
D004867:Equipment Design; D006804:Ergonomics; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control; D011682:Purchasing, Hospital; D013594:Syringes
Device design; Infection control; Macroergonomics; Organizational complexity; Risk management