Almost all the major accident investigations--Texas City, Piper Alpha, the Phillips 66 explosion, Feyzin, Mexico City--show human error as the principal cause, either in design, operations, maintenance, or the management of safety. This book provides practical advice that can substantially reduce human error at all levels. In eight chapters--packed with case studies and examples of simple and advanced techniques for new and existing systems--the book challenges the assumption that human error is "unavoidable." Instead, it suggests a systems perspective. This view sees error as a consequence of a mismatch between human capabilities and demands and inappropriate organizational culture. This makes error a manageable factor and, therefore, avoidable.

Process Safety Management and Human Factors: A Practitioner's Experiential Approach addresses human factors in process safety management (PSM) from a reflective learning approach. The book is written by engineers and technical specialists who spent the last 15-20 years of their professional career looking at behavioral-based safety, human factor research, and safety culture development in organizations. It is a fundamental resource for operational, technical and safety managers in high-risk industries who need to focus on personal and occupational safety management to prevent safety accidents. Real-life examples illustrate how a good, effective understanding of human factors supports PSM and positive impacts on accident occurrence. - Covers the evolution and background of process safety management - Shows how to integrate and augment process safety management with operational excellence and health, safety and environment management systems - Focuses on human factors in process safety management - Includes many real-life case studies from the collective experience of the book's authors

This title was first published in 2002: This field guide assesses two views of human error - the old view, in which human error becomes the cause of an incident or accident, or the new view, in which human error is merely a symptom of deeper trouble within the system. The two parts of this guide concentrate on each view, leading towards an appreciation of the new view, in which human error is the starting point of an investigation, rather than its conclusion. The second part of this guide focuses on the circumstances which unfold around people, which causes their assessments and actions to change accordingly. It shows how to "reverse engineer" human error, which, like any other componant, needs to be put back together in a mishap investigation.

Human error is implicated in nearly all aviation accidents, yet most investigation and prevention programs are not designed around any theoretical framework of human error. Appropriate for all levels of expertise, the book provides the knowledge and tools required to conduct a human error analysis of accidents, regardless of operational setting (i.e. military, commercial, or general aviation). The book contains a complete description of the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS), which incorporates James Reason's model of latent and active failures as a foundation. Widely disseminated among military and civilian organizations, HFACS encompasses all aspects of human error, including the conditions of operators and elements of supervisory and organizational failure. It attracts a very broad readership. Specifically, the book serves as the main textbook for a course in aviation accident investigation taught by one of the authors at the University of Illinois. This book will also be used in courses designed for military safety officers and flight surgeons in the U.S. Navy, Army and the Canadian Defense Force, who currently utilize the HFACS system during aviation accident investigations. Additionally, the book has been incorporated into the popular workshop on accident analysis and prevention provided by the authors at several professional conferences world-wide. The book is also targeted for students attending Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University which has satellite campuses throughout the world and offers a course in human factors accident investigation for many of its majors. In addition, the book will be incorporated into courses offered by Transportation Safety International and the Southern California Safety Institute. Finally, this book serves as an excellent reference guide for many safety professionals and investigators already in the field.

Examining-room computers require doctors to record detailed data about their patients, yet reduce the time clinicians can spend listening attentively to the very people they are trying to help. This book presents original essays by distinguished experts in their fields, addressing this critical problem and making an urgent case for reform, because while electronic technology has revolutionized the practice of medicine, it also poses a unique challenge to health care. Smartphones in the hands of doctors and nurses have become dangerously seductive devices that can endanger their patients. Distracted Doctoring is written for anesthesiologists and surgeons, as well as general practitioners, nurses, and health care administrators and students. Chapters include Electronic Challenges to Patient Safety and Care; Distraction, Disengagement, and the Purpose of Medicine; and Managing Distractions through Advocacy, Education, and Change.

Major accidents are rare events due to the many barriers, safeguards and defences developed by modern technologies. But they continue to happen with saddening regularity and their human and financial consequences are all too often unacceptably catastrophic. One of the greatest challenges we face is to develop more effective ways of both understanding and limiting their occurrence. This lucid book presents a set of common principles to further our knowledge of the causes of major accidents in a wide variety of high-technology systems. It also describes tools and techniques for managing the risks of such organizational accidents that go beyond those currently available to system managers and safety professionals. James Reason deals comprehensively with the prevention of major accidents arising from human and organizational causes. He argues that the same general principles and management techniques are appropriate for many different domains. These include banks and insurance companies just as much as nuclear power plants, oil exploration and production companies, chemical process installations and air, sea and rail transport. Its unique combination of principles and practicalities make this seminal book essential reading for all whose daily business is to manage, audit and regulate hazardous technologies of all kinds. It is relevant to those concerned with understanding and controlling human and organizational factors and will also interest academic readers and those working in industrial and government agencies.