Sunday, May 3, 2020

Human Factor in Health Care

Question: Discuss about the Human Factor in Health Care. Answer: Introduction The human factor in Healthcare is the most important thing about providing high quality service. The Healthcare workers have the risk of involving in human error while providing health care service that can cause harm to the health of the patient. Without the involvement of human factor it is not possible to deal with the challenges in the Healthcare system. With the help of the human factor it is also possible to optimize the relationship between the human and the involvement of the technology in the healthcare. The current report aims to focus on the needs and importance of the human factor in the healthcare using the fictitious scenario of Mr Daveys, who is the victim of medical negligence of the health care workers that is caused due to lack of human factor involvement. First Human Factor in Mr Daveys Scenario The main idea for human factor in Healthcare is to understand the needs of the patient and also have the ability to fulfil the needs. With the help of the human factor it is possible to provide high quality health service to a patient and ensure that the risk of medical error is minimised (Borkowski, 2015). There are also chances of reducing the risk of medical negligence that can compromise on the condition of the patient. In the given fictitious case scenario of Mr Davey, is seen to be the victim of medical negligence, which has resulted in the worsening of his condition. It is seen that the lack of hygiene and personal cleanliness is the major cause of risk involved in this situation. The Doctor did not seem to have any idea about hygienic treatment care, as he was not taking any protection while coughing in front of the patient who can have the risk of deteriorating the condition due to the risk involved in spreading of infectious disease. According to DeVault et al., (2014), mos t of the infection disease in hospital among patients is caused due to lack of personal hygiene among Healthcare workers which increases the risk of deteriorated in patient's condition. As Critical Care patient the risk of catching an infectious disease is much higher than normal people. Hence it is the duty of the doctors and harder Healthcare workers to ensure that hand hygiene and other aspects of personal hygiene are maintained carefully as an important human factor of health care service which can help to ensure high quality health service. Clean environment in the hospital and other Health Care units can also help in fast improvement of patient's condition. Magill et al., (2014), have mentioned the importance of personal hygiene that is involved in the patient's care, which is also regarded as the basic requirements of the patient care. It is also important what the doctor and other Healthcare workers to ensure that they maintain full cleanliness while doing any activity relat ed to treatment and care of the patient. The guideline of personal hygiene says that it is important to clean the hand before doing any activity or touching the patient for providing treatment. It is also important to clean the hand after the treatment of the patient is over which can reduce the risk of spreading of infection from one patient to other people in the Health Care Unit. In the given scenario, it was seen that the doctor did not seem to have any regard towards the basic hygiene while providing treatment to a critically ill patient. Due to the fact that there is less human factor involved in this case, the doctor did not seem to give prior importance to hygienic care of medical treatment. He is also not using any protective item like gloves are making sure that all the instruments that are used in medical care are totally clean. Raising the Awareness of the Healthcare workers and doctors is one of the basic importances in order to improve the personal hygiene care in a Hospital. It is also important for the hospital management to ensure that the district protocol of hygienic care and cleanliness environment within the hospital and all the Health Care workers are provided the basic training that is required to maintain personal hygiene while doing any treatment activities for a patient. Second Human Factor in Mr Daveys Scenario The use of technology in the medical Care Unit is common in the modern scenario where the doctor depends on the result provided in medical equipment in order to provide treatment to the patient. The technology is also used to provide medical support to the patient during the time of crisis (Grajales et al., 2014). For example a patient in integral Care Unit needs to be provided with ventilation and other oxygen supporting system in order to ensure that there is no breathing problem. With the help of various life supporting system in Healthcare you need it is possible to improve the patient's condition. However in the other words it is important to ensure that use of technology is accompanied with the human factor of Health Care Unit. In the given Scenario of Mr Davey, the doctor did not seem to have full idea about the use of equipment in medical Care Unit, as this elevate the risk of medical error and also due to the fact that improper use of equipment can worsen the condition of a patient. According to Holden et al., (2013), the use of latest equipment in the medical care has significantly reduce the risk of medical errors that could have caused due to involvement of human factor and also negligence. However, it is important to ensure that use of the technology in medical Care Unit needs to be implemented with proper care and the Healthcare workers also need to have proper training before implementing the use of Technology. Misuse or wrong use of the medical Care Unit Technology can have worse effects on the health condition of the patient. Carayon et al., (2014), have mentioned the importance of the human factor whole in the medical care unit, while using the health care equipment, which will help to ensure that the healthcare workers take full precautions while using Medical Technology in order to provide treatment. It is also the duty of the hospital management to ensure that all the equipment in the Healthcare unit is highly efficient and there is no risk of malfunction within that equipment that can have severe effect on the health condition of a patient. Proper maintenance of the equipment needed in the Healthcare Unit is also an important human factor that can help to ensure that the treatment that is provided with the use of equipment can have maximum positive effect and also help in the process of improving patient's condition. Conclusion Personal health hygiene and cleanliness and proper use of Medical Technology are the two important human factors that have been discussed in the given report. It is clear that without the involvement of human factor in Healthcare even in the age of high use of Medical Technology, it is not possible to provide accurate and quality health service to the patient. Strict rule of personal hygiene in the hospital among all Healthcare workers are basic important of cleanliness which can reduce the risk of spreading of infection. The Healthcare workers also needed to be given proper training while implicating the use of technology and also ensure that the equipment in the Healthcare unit are properly maintained which will help them to give maximum better result while improving the condition of a patient. Reference Borkowski, N. (2015). Organizational behavior in health care. Jones Bartlett Publishers. Carayon, P., Wetterneck, T. B., Rivera-Rodriguez, A. J., Hundt, A. S., Hoonakker, P., Holden, R., Gurses, A. P. (2014). Human factors systems approach to healthcare quality and patient safety. Applied ergonomics, 45(1), 14-25. DeVault, D., Artstein, R., Benn, G., Dey, T., Fast, E., Gainer, A., ... Lucas, G. (2014, May). SimSensei Kiosk: A virtual human interviewer for healthcare decision support. In Proceedings of the 2014 international conference on Autonomous agents and multi-agent systems (pp. 1061-1068). International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems. Grajales III, F. J., Sheps, S., Ho, K., Novak-Lauscher, H., Eysenbach, G. (2014). Social media: a review and tutorial of applications in medicine and health care. Journal of medical Internet research, 16(2), e13. Holden, R. J., Carayon, P., Gurses, A. P., Hoonakker, P., Hundt, A. S., Ozok, A. A., Rivera-Rodriguez, A. J. (2013). SEIPS 2.0: a human factors framework for studying and improving the work of healthcare professionals and patients. Ergonomics, 56(11), 1669-1686. 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