WHO: Human Factors in patient safety. Review of topics and tools (April 2009)

Summary

This report was prepared for the World Health Organization (WHO) Patient Safety’s Methods and Measures for Patient Safety Working Group. 

Content

This document presents a basic description of ten topic areas relating to organizational and human factors influencing patient safety. It also identifies a selection of tools for the measurement or training of these factors which may be suitable for application in developing, as well as developed, countries. 

The ten topics are:

• organisational safety culture
• managers’ leadership
• communication
• team (structures and processes)
• team leadership (supervisors)
• situation awareness
• decision making
• stress
• Fatigue
• work environment.