Healthcare Ergonomics And Patient Safety Assignment Sample

Introduction

The front door service of a hospital's Urgent and Emergency Care Centre is the first point of a patient attending the hospital for immediate treatment. This service is useful for sorting out the patients and providing the severe ones with prompt treatment. This is for functions such as registration, the initial assessment of the patient and referring the patient to the correct care track which may require an emergency evaluation, urgent care or direct admission. It is crucial to ensure that the front door services are effective in reducing the wait time so as to enhance the patients' satisfaction together with the performance of the emergency department. They are important in admissions, discharge, and transfer of patients, reduction of crowd, and proper utilization of resources in relation to the services being offered to the society.

Get top-quality academic support with our trusted Assignment Help services, tailored for every subject and deadline.

Background

Description Of The System And Boundary

Front door service, common for the centers providing urgent and emergency care, relates to the access of patients to the center as well as the initial assessment of a patient. Upon arrival patients are admitted and this is followed by registration by administrative workers. After registration, a triage nurse assesses the patients' acuity level to be attended first to receive the required attention. This consists of the arrival or reception area, the first point of contact with a health care provider, or the initial evaluation area for the clients (Aceves-González et al. 2021). This system boundary includes all processes starting from the time the patients get into the care center or health facility and until they are either admitted for further tending or discharged. These include reception/ registration area, the admitting area, and stabilization or emergency treatment area, particularly because procedures that should be followed need to be well defined in regard to the patient's progression through the zones. Thus, the aim is to organize the patient flow; quickly recognize those who need an immediate intervention, and guarantee that all patients will receive proper care within the framework of UEC limitations.

Describe High-Level Issues Of The Process

Key issues within front door service of hospital urgent and emergency care centers comprise of long waiting times, deficiency of resources, and ineffective flow of patients through the emergency unit. Due to the large number of patients visiting the hospital and a shortage of health personnel, they are likely to spend a lot of time awaiting their turn before they are attended to. Limited resources like the absence of some medical equipment like an X-ray machine, beds, etc, worsens these delays. Due to ineffective triage, patients can actually be sorted in a wrong way whereby the most-sickly among them do not get quick attention. Disorganized communication between departments also delays the patient flow and treatment. Further, there might be issues of record keeping, where patients' records are not updated hence necessitating retests or further treatment. Solving such problems needs consideration of efficient means of resource management, staff education, and early and efficient triage of all the patients (Beleffi et al. 2021). Therefore, the solutions to the above high-level issues when implemented comprehensively promote the well-being of workers and patients, and improve the effectiveness and stability of the healthcare sector.

Aim

The main aim of this report is to understand the work system in the front door services of the healthcare sectors and issues in emergency care unit. Besides, it can also help to understand the risks that are associated with healthcare procedures so that treatment procedures can be developed. The possible way to develop these systems can also be observed in this report.

System analysis

Definition Of The System Boundary

Defining the system boundary of the front door service of a hospital's Urgent and Emergency Care Centre implies covering all activities and communications that start with the patient presenting in urgent need of attention and end with either discharge, admission to a ward or transfer to another care setting. This involves interaction with patients coming through the emergency ambulance services, patients who come on their own, reception, triaging, registration, and initial evaluation of the patient's condition. Within this area, patient flow's key aspects include the reception area, first points of contact, waiting zones, and areas for preliminary diagnosis and treatment (Carayon et al. 2022). This also includes the electronic records of patients, transfer of information between clerks, and the general communication of emergency officers with the other departments in the hospitals. Also, it encompass the relationship between various functions such as the working together with other service providers for example radiology or laboratory services that diagnose and treat a condition. In particular, internally it cooperates with emergency services of the community and patient transport, which allow for smooth transition from the community to a hospital. This defined system boundary of the patient includes overall and concrete patient management from the medical emergency recognition to their ultimate discharge.

Representation of the work system

SEIPS

(Source: Self-made in MS Visio)

The figure above displays the SEIPS framework that can be used to review healthcare systems and patient safety. It can help in the development of the front door services and treatment for emergency services. The front door services like registration, triage and first aid can be develop for this. Activities are certain operations by which care and other processes take place. This also provides ideas about feedback, and monitor condition of patients and patient safety.

People map

(Source: Self-made in MS Visio)

This people map shows the organisational structure, especially in a health care institution or rather a health care system. The healthcare management department oversees several key roles like a nurse coordinator, training of staff, for the medical concerned teams and a medical development team (Davey, 2022). Doctors and pediatricians are depicted at the same hierarchy level, working under no other authority than the company's upper management.

Task analysis

(Source: Self-made in MS Visio)

This task analysis flowchart with distinctions made in terms of three stages of patient care. These events include registration and the first point of contact with the patient or the patient's caregiver. The second stage is described as nursing work, where the healthcare staff's activity is focused on elements such as vital signs and physical examination. In the next step, it focuses on resource allocation and manages all the process effectively for emergency.

Interaction Diagram

(Source: Self-made in MS Visio)

This interaction diagram aims to showcase the healthcare procedure using an emergency services and patient-centric approach. The various steps involve patient registration, data capturing, diagnostics workflow and the assessment of the patient's condition among others (Della Torre et al. 2022). It provides idea about the emergency process in hospital and front door services.

Influence Diagram

(Source: Self-made in MS Visio)

The Influence diagram provides a conceptual model concerning front door services and patient safety. This model highlights relationships between patients and doctors and nurses effectively (Stevens et al. 2021). The scope of development in emergency services and front door can be improved focusing on this model.

FRAM

(Source: Self-made in MS Visio)

This Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) for healthcare processes gives a description of the patient care processes. Concerning the management of ICU or OT, key intervention areas are patient admission, providing effective tools for treatment, and emergency services development.

Report Of Findings And Insights

Quality and safety problems: When focusing on findings of SEIPS are further categorized to patient's outcomes which include adverse effects for emergency services, medical errors and front door services. This model incorporates many aspects of social systems that need to be considered when exploring and trying to enhance patients' safety (Kalra et al. 2021). It represents requirements of emergency care solutions to enhance working conditions for the healthcare personnel and staff movements within the outlined system.

Risks: The task analysis model provides, idea of the increased health care system by reflecting on the systematic decision-making and the focus on the problem of emergency services. It shows the method to enhance efficiency of various healthcare activities to ensure a better safety of patients (Privitera, 2022). The interaction model shows how front door services and emergency services are linked in the healthcare system, stressing the integral approach to healthcare emergency services issues.

Inadequate controls: The influence diagram defines the purpose of healthcare elements such as reduction of work pressure, availability of resources, and treatment development. It analyses the role of training, competence, and safety culture in making a systematic approach to heal emergency services possible within the system's framework. The people map structure shows different positions of a health-care organisation and corporate relationships between the varieties of specific medical personnel that can help patients for better treatment.

Performance variability: The people map, interaction diagram in healthcare are provided in order to show the processes that interconnect within the healthcare system and the division of responsibilities (Momani et al. 2022). Therefore, this map is very helpful to understand the distinct patterns and structures of the healthcare system and to find several possible issues and solutions.

Misalignment & weak abilities: This task analysis model provides an idea of the poor workspace emergency services for the healthcare staff members. It demonstrates conditions on three main areas like patient handling, pain management, and triage, administrative work and medication handling for healthcare development.

Underlying mechanisms: The FRAM model shows the way healthcare can be improved to improve patient healthcare. This framework is associated with treatment planning, patient's admission and also focuses on Treatment development of healthcare workers (Koshy et al. 2020). The way the work can affect staff can be analysed by this diagram, so it can help in development of patient care.

List of changes at different stages

Leverage Points

When focusing on emergency care unit designed for patient operation or emergency service equipment is one of the principles is to act as a leverage point. It can be helpful to reduce risk and enhance the system resilience in front door services and emergency unit. Arranging the beds and other elements of ICU spaces in such a way that it decreases the number of times employees have to change positions or have to bend their body in an improper manner (Dominguez-Alfaro et al. 2021). Provide a clear methodical approach to training employees on both fundamentals of safe patient handling and utilization of emergency services development.

Safety Action Development Guide – NHS England

For safety action interventions according to the NHS England Safety Action Development Guide, it is necessary to indicate risk management, feedback development. Besides, constant focus on emergency care unit treatment procedures development is necessary. Standardize and implement protocols for patient moving and other standardized nursing sensitive activities. Apart from that providing better first aids in the front door and implementings better instruments for emergency can help a lot (Dominguez-Alfaro et al. 2021). Creating channels for communication and reporting of problems and recommended solutions among healthcare workers. Applying the SWIFT model efficiently throughout the implementation process in order to monitor the appearance of new risks can be helpful. Improving observation, treatment procedure, and pain management and trial process can be effective.

Hierarchy Of Control (Active Risk Control)

The Hierarchy of Control includes measures which automate frontdoor services or operation theater tasks where possible. Then advancement to mechanical lifting aids instead of manual handling is employed. Engineering Controls is connected to Redesign ICU layouts to allow for safer transfer of patients. Administrative Controls can put measures in a way that can allow manual transfers to take place a certain number of times within a given shift (Holden et al. 2021). Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is protective clothing that helps lessen the stress on employees. Therefore, utilizing the hierarchical control approach guarantees the systematic elimination of risks and the improvement of worker and patient welfare.

Reduction of Misalignment, Adaptations And Improved Resilience Abilities

For improvement on the coping factors the following need to be practiced. Strengthen the communication channels when conducting any patient handling tasks so that clarity is achieved. It should be possible to establish flexible guidelines which may be changing according to the specific context required by the healthcare staff. Provide the training courses that are devoted to the development of resilience, which would help to respond to the conditions that are unfavorable for work (Gurses et al. 2020). Through applying numerous assessment approaches, including FRAM systems, healthcare organisations can enhance their learning processes by developing a strong staffing formation of a workforce. This can be capable of delivering high quality of safety to the patients regardless of the ever-changing conditions resolved by the organisations in emergency services. Therefore, implementing SEIPS, task analysis, interaction model in organisation can be very effective.

Description Of Implementation Of Changes

For the strategic management of change processes in healthcare that cause better treatment in emergency care and improves services at front door can be observed.

Equipment Design and Utilization: Replace all ICU with emergency care unit proven lifting aids and patient transfer engaged. This entails purchasing better technologies for treatment and improve front door service using tools can be developed. The process maps developed based on the SEIPS framework can help in this work environment.

Workplace Layout Optimization: Organise ICU, operation theater layouts in a different manner that can help to cut down unnecessary mobility (Kalra et al. 2020). This includes positioning of equipment and supplies in the front door to improve treatment process.

Training Programs: Provide awareness to healthcare workers who should be trained on how to effectively handle both themselves and the patients. Therefore, the new equipment that are emergency care unit efficient can be analsyed by this.

Risk Assessments: The review of the health risks at the emergency care unit should be done to manage critical condition of patients. Structured what-if analysis (SWIFT) can help with monitoring the adequacies and overseeing changes constantly.

Evaluation: To evaluate the effectiveness of these changes, a combination of FRAM can be employed (Taylor et al. 2021). This means that factors like the rate of observed injuries, managing serious cases properly and outcomes relating to patient handling shall be observed. FRAM can apply to determine the impact of the integration of new equipment, training, and policies within the context of the ICU.

Effectiveness for Healthcare Development: The elements of SEIPS and task analysis promote improvements in processes and work arrangements and the Hierarchy of Control minimizes hazards in a systematic manner. FRAM is ongoing monitoring and evaluation systems that also promote improvement and change (Kumar, 2024). The implemented approach that not only improves patient care treatment but also relieves the burnout of health care workers thus providing a safer and efficient ICU area.

Reflection On Methods And Models

Analyzing all the diagrams that were shown some suggestions for further improvement of the front door servicesand patient safety can be provided. Foster the positive interaction between people, tasks, technologies, and the health care systems as postulated by the SEIPS model. This applies to both patient safety results and the scores related to the level of employee job satisfaction. Redesign the organisational structure to enhance effective communication and decision-making for the healthcare workers who are operating at various levels in organisation. Enhancing the purpose and process of the task analysis to further evaluate the possible safety hazards and patients' treatment concerns for every phase of a patient's treatment (Kwok et al. 2022). It focuses on instriment development, resource allocation and procedure development effectively.

Increase the competencies of the healthcare staff by effective training on how to handle patients and improve on emergency treatment. Increase the provision of instruments and services that would enhance emergency services and patients' safety. The achievement of these changes could enhance a proper healthcare system and the safety of the patients and the emergency services of the healthcare workers (Freeman et al. 2021). Regarding the improvement of FRAM model, specifically for general hospital wards, it is suggested that an emergency services assessment step can be incorporated before the treatment implementation step (Papautsky et al. 2022). The changes would enhance the applicability of the FRAM model in the effective development of healthcare and can provide necessary service in the front door.

Interaction Diagram can elaborate process of communication where one component of the healthcare system interacts with the other component. The process of patient flow and categories correspond to registration, assessment, diagnostic workups and treatments. In mapping such interactions, the hospital can be able to see where and when delays are likely to occur, understand the workflow between the different departments in relation to the patients. Task Analysis flowchart can outlines the several processes or activities involved in a patient's care delivery. For the front door service, it stresses on the first focal points of the patient's visiting process, identification and registration, and the subsequent decision-making. Therefore, it can be said that all these methods can play crucial role in managing hospital front door services and emergency care unit. The SEIPS model is beneficial for understanding various elements of the work system, starting from the process itself, to the outcomes and feedback (Austin et al. 2022). The development of technology and tools can also improve the working process. This is because of the recognition that patient safety, staff satisfaction, and the efficiency of the urgent and emergency care center's front door service may require more productive enhancements.

For the development of a successful front door service of a hospital's Urgent and Emergency Care Centre requires the application of FRAM (Functional Resonance Analysis Method), Influence Diagram, and People Map for direction and safety of patients. This way, FRAM makes it possible to define interrelations of different functions in the service. It also allows for the enhancement of structures that will be responsive to different circumstances and requirements, thus bringing sustainability and efficiency in emergency health treatment (Ahmed et al. 2020). The Influence Diagram represents the overall interconnections between the main concepts and decision elements, and it helps to make decision-oriented determinations. This is useful for managing the emergency works and service delivery efficiency so as to make necessary adjustments based on the information received. The People Map shows the specifics of the direct and indirect participants in the front door service. Therefore, it can be said that due to the efficacy of these models, these are used so much in hospital front door services and can maintain emergency services.

Conclusion

As per the analysis for front door service of hospital urgent and emergency care centers, it concludes that the position that proper functions of triage and initial assessment improve patient access and performance of service delivery. Even though expanded triage models, staff training and appropriate use of human resource are vital for decreasing the waiting time and enhancing the quality of care. More enhancements can be made through constant supervision and embracing of the best practices that will enhance therapeutic procedures for patients. Implementing these improvements can result in the betterment of the patient experience, health, and the efficiency of the urgent and emergency care services offered to the population. All these models have been used due to the efficacy and necessity of these models in hospital work development. The effective utilisation of these models can improve working style properly.

Reference list

Journals

• Aceves-González, C., Rodríguez, Y., Escobar-Galindo, C.M., Pérez, E., Gutiérrez-Moreno, B., Hignett, S. and Lang, A.R., 2021. Frontiers in human factors: integrating human factors and emergency servicess to improve safety and quality in Latin American healthcare systems. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 33(Supplement_1), pp.45-50.
• Ahmed, A.A., Ibro, S.A., Melkamu, G., Seid, S.S. and Tesfaye, T., 2020. Length of stay in the emergency department and its associated factors at Jimma Medical Center, Southwest Ethiopia. Open Access Emergency Medicine, pp.227-235.
• Al Nhdi, N., Al Asmari, H. and Al Thobaity, A., 2021. Investigating indicators of waiting time and length of stay in emergency departments. Open Access Emergency Medicine, pp.311-318.
• Austin, E., Blakely, B., Salmon, P., Braithwaite, J. and Clay-Williams, R., 2022. Identifying constraints on everyday clinical practice: applying work domain analysis to emergency department care. Human Factors, 64(1), pp.74-98.
• Bahadori, M., Mousavi, S.M., Teymourzadeh, E. and Ravangard, R., 2020. Non-urgent visits to emergency departments: a qualitative study in Iran exploring causes, consequences and solutions. BMJ open, 10(2), p.e028257.
• Beleffi, E., Mosconi, P. and Sheridan, S., 2021. The patient journey. Textbook of patient safety and clinical risk management, pp.117-127.
• Carayon, P., Wust, K., Hose, B.Z. and Salwei, M.E., 2021. Human factors and emergency servicess in health care. Handbook of human factors and emergency servicess, pp.1417-1437.
• Davey, J., 2022. Prioritizing Human-Centered Design: Integrating Emergency servicess and Medical Device Development for Optimal User Experience. Cosmic Journal of Biology, 1(1), pp.481-494.
• Della Torre, V., Nacul, F., Rosseel, P., Baid, H., Bhowmick, K., Szawarski, P., Sahoo, T.K., Utku, T., Wong, A. and Malbrain, M.L., 2021. Human factors and emergency servicess to improve performance in intensive care units during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anaesthesiology Intensive Therapy, 53(3), pp.265-270.
• Dominguez-Alfaro, D., Mendoza-Muñoz, I., Navarro-González, C.R., Montoya-Reyes, M.I., Cruz-Sotelo, S.E. and Vargas-Bernal, O.Y., 2021. Ergovsm: A new tool that integrates emergency servicess and productivity. Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management (JIEM), 14(3), pp.552-569.
• Freeman, M., Robinson, S. and Scholtes, S., 2021. Gatekeeping, fast and slow: An empirical study of referral errors in the emergency department. Management Science, 67(7), pp.4209-4232.
• Gurses, A.P., Tschudy, M.M., McGrath-Morrow, S., Husain, A., Solomon, B.S., Gerohristodoulos, K.A. and Kim, J.M., 2020. Overcoming COVID-19: what can human factors and emergency servicess offer?. Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management, 25(2), pp.49-54.
• Hansen, K., Boyle, A., Holroyd, B., Phillips, G., Benger, J., Chartier, L.B., Lecky, F., Vaillancourt, S., Cameron, P., Waligora, G. and Kurland, L., 2020. Updated framework on quality and safety in emergency medicine. Emergency medicine journal, 37(7), pp.437-442.
• Hignett, S. and Bowie, P., 2020. Why is the NHS still harming patients? Taking a professional approach to patient safety for COVID-19 and beyond.
• Holden, R.J., Abebe, E., Russ-Jara, A.L. and Chui, M.A., 2021. Human factors and emergency servicess methods for pharmacy research and clinical practice. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, 17(12), pp.2019-2027.
• Hong, M., Thind, A., Zaric, G.S. and Sarma, S., 2020. The impact of improved access to after-hours primary care on emergency department and primary care utilization: A systematic review. Health Policy, 124(8), pp.812-818.
• Jiao, W., Huang, W. and Fan, H., 2022. Evaluating spatial accessibility to healthcare services from the lens of emergency hospital visits based on floating car data. International Journal of Digital Earth, 15(1), pp.108-133.
• Kalra, J. and Lightner, N.J., 2020. Advances in human factors and emergency servicess in healthcare and medical devices. Springer International Publishing.
• Koshy, K., Syed, H., Luckiewicz, A., Alsoof, D., Koshy, G. and Harry, L., 2020. Interventions to improve emergency servicess in the operating theatre: a systematic review of emergency servicess training and intra-operative microbreaks. Annals of Medicine and Surgery, 55, pp.135-142.
• Kumar, B., 2024. Human Factor and Emergency servicess The Need of the Hour in Healthcare Sector of India. International Journal of Preventative & Evidence Based Medicine, pp.9-15.
• Kwok, Y.T. and Lam, M.S., 2022. Using human factors and emergency servicess principles to prevent inpatient falls. BMJ open quality, 11(1), p.e001696.
• Yiadom, M.Y., Napoli, A., Granovsky, M., Parker, R.B., Pilgrim, R., Pines, J.M., Schuur, J., Augustine, J., Jouriles, N. and Welch, S., 2020. Managing and measuring emergency department care: results of the fourth emergency department benchmarking definitions summit. Academic Emergency Medicine, 27(7), pp.600-611.

Author Bio

Adam Green   8 years | PhD

Hello Everyone. This is Adam Green from Liverpool, United Kingdom. I am a healthcare professional and PhD holder in the same field. I have assisted students with their Healthcare academic papers for many years. I am capable of drafting rich-quality papers that too without any errors. So if you require assistance with your Healthcare papers then feel free to get in touch with me at New Assignment Help.