1st Edition

Patient Safety An Engineering Approach

By B.S. Dhillon Copyright 2012
    234 Pages 30 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    234 Pages 30 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    With unintended harm during hospital care costing billions of dollars to the world economy, not to mention millions of deaths each year, it’s no wonder the issue is equally front and center in the minds of healthcare providers and the public. Although the issue has been tackled in journal articles and conference proceedings, there are very few books on the topic. And none consider how methods and techniques developed in the area of engineering can handle safety and human error-related problems. Until now.

    Written by an expert with vast know-how in engineering management, design, reliability, safety, and quality, Patient Safety: An Engineering Approach brings together the pertinent information scattered throughout books and journals, eliminating the need to consult many different and diverse sources to find what you need. B.S. Dhillon draws on his real-world experience to demonstrate how to handle patient safety-related problems using engineering techniques and backs this up with references for further reading at the end of each chapter. He sets the stage with introductory chapters on mathematical, patient safety, and human factors concepts essential to understanding materials presented in subsequent chapters.

    Dhillon’s clear, concise discussion of the topics presents the information in such a way that no previous knowledge is required to understand the contents, yet he does not present it at a merely rudimentary level. He brings a fresh approach and engineering perspective to the issues, giving you a new tool kit for performing patient safety-related analysis, designing better medical systems/devices, and handling patient safety-related problems from an engineering perspective.

    Introduction
    Background
    Patient Safety Facts and Figures
    Terms and Definitions
    Useful Information on Patient Safety
    Scope of the Book
    Problems
    References

    Patient Safety Mathematics
    Introduction
    Range, Mode, Median, Arithmetic Mean, and Mean Deviation
    Sets and Boolean Algebra Laws
    Probability Definition and Properties
    Probability Density Function, Cumulative Distribution Function, and Expected Value Definitions
    Probability Distributions
    Laplace Transform Definition, Common Laplace Transforms, and Final-Value Theorem
    Solving First-Order Differential Equations Using Laplace Transforms
    Problems
    References

    Safety and Human Factors Basics
    Introduction
    Need for Safety and Safety-Related Facts and Figures
    Common Causes of Work Injuries and Classifications of Product Hazards
    Common Mechanical Injuries
    Accident Causation Theories
    Safety Management Principles
    Human Factors Objectives and Disciplines Contributing to Human Factors
    Human and Machine Characteristics
    General Human Behaviors
    Human Sensory Capabilities
    Human Factors-Related Formulas
    Problems
    References

    Methods for Performing Patient Safety Analysis
    Introduction
    Failure Modes and Effect Analysis (FMEA)
    Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
    Hazard Operability Analysis (HAZOP)
    Interface Safety Analysis (ISA)
    Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA)
    Technic of Operations Review (TOR)
    Job Safety Analysis (JSA)
    Six Sigma Methodology
    Pareto Diagram
    Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)
    Markov Method
    Problems
    References

    Patient Safety Basics
    Introduction
    Patient Safety Goals
    Causes of Patient Injuries and Examples of Factors Endangering Patient Safety at Various Levels of Health Care
    Patient Safety Culture, Factors Contributing to Patient Safety Culture, and Its Assessment Objectives and Barriers
    Safer Practices for Better Health Care
    Areas of Improved Patient Safety from Enhanced Health Information Exchange
    Patient Safety Program
    Patient Safety Indicators
    References

    Medication Safety and Errors
    Introduction
    Medication Safety in Emergency Departments
    Medication Safety in Operating Rooms
    Drug Labeling or Packaging-Related Problems
    Prescribing Faults
    Medication-Use Safety Indicators
    Medication Error-Related Facts and Figures
    Medication Errors Types and Common Reasons for Their Occurrence
    Nursing-Related Factors in Medication Errors Occurrence
    General Guidelines to Reduce the Occurrence of Medication Errors
    Problems
    References

    Health Care Workers’ Role and Safety and Falls
    Introduction
    Technology Commonly Used by the Nursing Profession
    Relationship between Nursing Workload and Patient Safety
    Health Care Worker Hazards
    Health Care Worker Musculoskeletal and Needlestick Injuries and Latex Allergy
    Health Care Workers’ Slip-, Trip-, and Fall-Related Concerns and Prevention Strategies
    Inpatient Bed Falls
    Wheelchair-Related Falls
    Fall Prevention Recommendations for Acute and Long-Term Care
    Problems
    References

    Human Error in Various Medical Areas and Other Related Information
    Introduction
    Human Error in Anesthesia
    Human Error in Emergency Medicine
    Human Error in Operating Rooms
    Human Error in Intensive Care Units
    Human Error in Medical Technology Use, Laboratory Testing, Radiotherapy, and Image Interpretation
    Factors Contributing to Human Error in Surgical Pathology and Causes of Wrong-Site Surgeries
    Reasons for Clinicians Not Reporting and Disclosing Errors and Near Misses
    Guidelines for Preventing the Occurrence of Medical Errors
    Health Care Human Error Reporting Systems
    Problems
    References

    Medical Device Safety and Errors
    Introduction
    Types of Medical Device Safety and Medical Device Hardware and Software Safety
    Essential Safety Requirements for Medical Devices, Legal Aspects of Medical Device Safety, and Medical Device Electrical Safety Standards
    Software-Related Issues in the Safety of Cardiac Rhythm Management Products
    Classifications of Medical Device Accidents and Medical Device Accident Occurrence Probability Estimation
    Medical Devices with a High Incidence of Human Error
    Medical Device Operator Errors
    General Approach to Human Factors during the Medical Device Development Process for Reducing Human Errors
    Problems
    References

    Medical Device Usability
    Introduction
    Medical Device Users and Use Environments
    Medical Device User Interfaces and Use Description
    An Approach to Develop Medical Devices’ Effective User Interfaces
    Useful Guidelines to Reduce Medical Device/Equipment User-Interface-Related Errors
    Designing and Developing Medical Devices for Old User Population
    Guidelines for Designing Hand-Operated Devices with Respect to Cumulative Trauma Disorder
    Useful Documents for Improving Usability of Medical Devices
    Problems
    References

    Patient Safety Organizations, Data Sources, and Mathematical Models
    Introduction
    Patient Safety Organization Types and Functions
    Governmental Patient Safety Organizations
    Independent Patient Safety Organizations
    Data Sources
    Mathematical Models
    Problems
    References

    Appendix: Bibliography—Literature on Patient Safety
    Index

    Biography

    B.S. Dhillon

    " … an outstanding book covering the most up-to-date research translated into simple, easy-to-use methods, procedures and indicators. Dr. Dhillon is an international authority in the field of reliability, safety and human factors engineering and authored over 38 books covering various design and engineering aspects. The highlight of this book is that Dr. Dhillon is applying time-tested, proven engineering best practices to the field of patient safety and is invaluable to healthcare practitioners, administrators, academicians and researchers. It is an excellent, down-to-earth, easy-to-use pragmatic book with up-to-date coverage of literature."
    -- Dr. Subramanyam Rayapati, IBM