Shape Matters: A Neglected Feature of Medication Safety: Why Regulating the Shape of Medication Containers Can Improve Medication Safety.
This paper aims to highlight how to reduce medication errors through the implementation of human factors science to the design features of medication containers. Despite efforts to employ automation for increased safety and decreased workload, medication administration in hospital wards is still hea...
| Published in: | Journal of Medical Systems Vol. 47; no. 1; pp. 1 - 6 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | pictorial Journal Article |
| Published: |
Springer Nature
Dec2023
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=161822829&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 161822829 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 01485598 4N0 jtl: Journal of Medical Systems issn: 01485598 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2023 vid: 47 iid: 1 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature place: New York, New York artinfo: ui: 161822829 161822829 161822829 10.1007/s10916-022-01905-0 161822829 ppf: 1 ppct: 5 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Shape Matters: A Neglected Feature of Medication Safety: Why Regulating the Shape of Medication Containers Can Improve Medication Safety. aug: au: Bitan, Yuval Nunnally, Mark E. affil: Department of Health Policy and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel sug: subj: Drug Packaging Equipment and Supplies Equipment Design Patient Safety Quality Improvement Practice Guidelines Medication Errors Prevention and Control Program Implementation Work Environment Drug Administration Pharmaceutical Companies Confusion Workload Drug Labeling Health Policy ab: This paper aims to highlight how to reduce medication errors through the implementation of human factors science to the design features of medication containers. Despite efforts to employ automation for increased safety and decreased workload, medication administration in hospital wards is still heavily dependent on human operators (pharmacists, nurses, physicians, etc.). Improving this multi-step process requires its being studied and designed as an interface in a complex socio-technical system. Human factors engineering, also known as ergonomics, involves designing socio-technical systems to improve overall system performance, and reduces the risk of system, and in particular, operator, failures. The incorporation of human factors principles into the design of the work environment and tools that are in use during medication administration could improve this process. During periods of high workload, the cognitive effort necessary to work through a very demanding process may overwhelm even expert operators. In such conditions, the entire system should facilitate the human operator's high level of performance. Regarding medications, clinicians should be provided with as many perceptual cues as possible to facilitate medication identification. Neglecting the shape of the container as one of the features that differentiates between classes of medications is a lost opportunity to use a helpful characteristic, and medication administration failures that happen in the absence of such intentional design arise from "designer error" rather than "user error". Guidelines that define a container's shape for each class of medication would compel pharmaceutical manufacturers to be compatible and would eliminate the confusion that arises when a hospital changes the supplier of a given medication. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: pictorial Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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