title: [Human factors in medicine].
abstract: The concept of human factors is commonly used in the context of patient safety and medical errors, all too often ambiguously. In actual fact, the term comprises a wide range of meanings from human-machine interfaces through human performance and limitations up to the point of working process design; however, human factors prevail as a substantial cause of error in complex systems. This article presents the full range of the term human factors from the (emergency) medical perspective. Based on the so-called Swiss cheese model by Reason, we explain the different types of error, what promotes their emergence and on which level of the model error prevention can be initiated.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Notfallmedizin und Medizinmanagement, Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Schillerstr. 53, 80336, München, Deutschland. marc.lazarovici@med.uni-muenchen.de.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lazarovici
authors.affiliation: Institut für Notfallmedizin und Medizinmanagement, Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Schillerstr. 53, 80336, München, Deutschland.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Trentzsch
authors.affiliation: Institut für Notfallmedizin und Medizinmanagement, Klinikum der Universität München, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Schillerstr. 53, 80336, München, Deutschland.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Prückner
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006804:Ergonomics / Q000379:methods*; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015279:Organizational Culture; D061214:Patient Safety; D017751:Safety Management / Q000458:organization & administration*
keywords: Cause of error; Classification of error; Medical errors; Patient safety; Safety culture