Work System Analysis: The Key to Understanding Health Care Systems

Abstract

Many articles in the medical literature state that medical errors are the result of systems problems, require systems analyses, and can only be addressed with systems solutions. Within that same body of literature is a growing recognition that human factors engineering methods and design principles are needed to reduce medical errors and, hence, increase patient safety. Work system analysis methods, which are based on industrial and human factors engineering tools, have much to contribute toward patient safety, specifically because of their focus on systems. They offer principles and methods for analyzing systems, which, if followed, should help health care administrators and clinicians properly analyze their units or facilities, and should lead to more robust patient safety interventions. In this paper, steps for executing a work system analysis are provided. To facilitate comprehension of the steps, the medication administration system is used as an example.

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