The occurrence of failures and mistakes in health care, from primary care procedures to the complexities of the operating room, has become a hot-button issue with the general public and within the medical community. Around the Patient Bed: Human Factors and Safety in Health Care examines the problem and investigates the tools to improve health care quality and safety from a human factors engineering viewpoint—the applied scientific field engaged in the interaction between the human operator (functionary, worker), task requirements, the governing technical systems, and the characteristics of the work environment. The book presents a systematic human factors-based, proactive approach to the improvement of health care work and patient safety. The proposed approach delineates a more direct and powerful alternative to the contemporary dominant focus on error investigation and care providers' accountability. It demonstrates how significant improvements in the quality of care and enhancement of patient safety are contingent on a major shift from efforts and investments driven by a retroactive study of errors, incidents, and adverse events, to an emphasis on proactive human factors-driven intervention and the development of corresponding conceptual approaches and methods for its systematic implementation. Edited by Yoel Donchin, representing the medical profession, and Daniel Gopher, from the human factors engineering field, the book brings together experts who have collaborated to present studies that reveal a wide range of problems and weaknesses of the contemporary health care system, which impair safety and quality and increase workload. The book presents practical solutions based on human factors engineering components and cognitive psychology, and explains their driving principles and methodologies. This approach provides tools to significantly reduce the number of errors, creates a safe environment, and improves the quality of health care.

Increased concern for patient safety has put the issue at the top of the agenda of practitioners, hospitals, and even governments. The risks to patients are many and diverse, and the complexity of the healthcare system that delivers them is huge. Yet the discourse is often oversimplified and underdeveloped. Written from a scientific, human factors

The first edition of Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care and Patient Safety took the medical and ergonomics communities by storm with in-depth coverage of human factors and ergonomics research, concepts, theories, models, methods, and interventions and how they can be applied in health care. Other books focus on particular human

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/

The Social Security Administration (SSA) administers two programs that provide benefits based on disability: the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. This report analyzes health care utilizations as they relate to impairment severity and SSA's definition of disability. Health Care Utilization as a Proxy in Disability Determination identifies types of utilizations that might be good proxies for "listing-level" severity; that is, what represents an impairment, or combination of impairments, that are severe enough to prevent a person from doing any gainful activity, regardless of age, education, or work experience.

Patients are increasingly encouraged to take an active role in managing their health and health care. New technologies, cultural shifts, trends in healthcare delivery, and policies have brought to the forefront the "work" patients, families, and other non-professionals perform in the pursuit of health. This volume closely examines notable application areas for the emerging discipline of Patient Ergonomics – the science of patient work. The Patient Factor: Applications of Patient Ergonomics, Volume II reviews the definition of Patient Ergonomics and discusses the application of Patient Ergonomics across contexts. It analyzes patient work performed in emergency departments, transitions of care, home and community settings, retail pharmacies, and online communities. It also examines applications to groups including veterans, pediatric patients, older adults, the underserved, and people engaged in health promotion. The Patient Factor is ideal for academics working in health care and patient-centered research, their students, human factors practitioners working in healthcare organizations or at technology companies, frontline healthcare professionals, and leaders of healthcare delivery organizations.

A difficult and recalcitrant phenomenon, medical error causes pervasive and expensive problems in terms of patient injury, ineffective treatment, and rising healthcare costs. Simple heightened awareness can help, but it requires organized, effective remedies and countermeasures that are reasonable, acceptable, and adaptable to see a truly significa