Safety in medicine is a rapidly developing field. Similarly to the industry sector in the late ‘80s, nowadays leading organisations in the healthcare sector acknowledge the fact that human errors, adverse events and system failure must be managed and controlled. Whilst Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) has been well-accepted and integrated into safety management processes in other industries, the application of such error techniques to the problem of managing the associated risks in healthcare is rare. The paper deals with the identification and description of the first steps towards new human reliability methodological developments, adapting the existing HRA techniques which have either practical application in healthcare or which are well established elsewhere and have potential application in the Italian medical sector. While some areas of healthcare have used certain HRA techniques (for example Root Cause Analysis is an effective method for investigating human and organisational causes underlying medical adverse events), there is considerable scope to use others and to apply techniques to other aspects of healthcare not yet explored. To ascertain suitable techniques to transfer to an Italian medical care context, we carried out, in the first instance, a literature review to identify all techniques in current or recent use in an international context with respect to present state of the art. Some common HRA techniques are presented together with a description of how they would fit into medical processes. The gathered qualitative data are analysed by groups of experts, through structured focus group discussions and group interviews and with in-depth individual interviews. It is envisaged that this paper could act as a framework for other Healthcare systems wishing to develop sustainable processes for managing the generation and application of HRA methods alongside hospitalisation processes.

A Human Reliability Analysis approach to Clinical Risk Management: first steps towards a new methodology

TURRA, FEDERICA;VERBANO, CHIARA
2007

Abstract

Safety in medicine is a rapidly developing field. Similarly to the industry sector in the late ‘80s, nowadays leading organisations in the healthcare sector acknowledge the fact that human errors, adverse events and system failure must be managed and controlled. Whilst Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) has been well-accepted and integrated into safety management processes in other industries, the application of such error techniques to the problem of managing the associated risks in healthcare is rare. The paper deals with the identification and description of the first steps towards new human reliability methodological developments, adapting the existing HRA techniques which have either practical application in healthcare or which are well established elsewhere and have potential application in the Italian medical sector. While some areas of healthcare have used certain HRA techniques (for example Root Cause Analysis is an effective method for investigating human and organisational causes underlying medical adverse events), there is considerable scope to use others and to apply techniques to other aspects of healthcare not yet explored. To ascertain suitable techniques to transfer to an Italian medical care context, we carried out, in the first instance, a literature review to identify all techniques in current or recent use in an international context with respect to present state of the art. Some common HRA techniques are presented together with a description of how they would fit into medical processes. The gathered qualitative data are analysed by groups of experts, through structured focus group discussions and group interviews and with in-depth individual interviews. It is envisaged that this paper could act as a framework for other Healthcare systems wishing to develop sustainable processes for managing the generation and application of HRA methods alongside hospitalisation processes.
2007
Reliability and Social Safety
9780415447867
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11577/2469220
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