Understanding “Human Factors” is Not “Factors Associated with Being Human” (ECRI September 2024)

Summary

Even as the healthcare system relies on this tapestry of inanimate resources, healthcare remains fundamentally human. It’s people who give and receive care and people who help ensure safety and quality. Yet humans can also misstep. When humans make errors, we ask why.

Human factors engineers specialise in understanding how design of a system creates opportunities for human error. Their mission is to design work systems to support the work people need to accomplish. With that perspective, human error becomes an impetus to find weaknesses in the system so that safety and performance goals can be met.