Presentation
Implementing ergonomic innovations in the OR: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
DescriptionNOTE: This is the Society of Surgical Ergonomics Panel
Human factors and ergonomics researchers and practitioners have long studied the difficulties of health care workers in a system and the impact of these difficulties on patient safety. However, there has been fewer studies on interventions to correct the difficulties for healthcare workers and even fewer on how to best implement (both introducing and sustaining) these ergonomic interventions in health care, fewer yet in the specialized operating room environment.
This panel is comprised of both human factors engineers working in the surgical field and surgeons with expertise in human factors. This multi-specialty panel will discuss their experiences creating or specifying ergonomic interventions and implementing these interventions into the specialized and difficult operating room environment in the hospital with surgeons and surgical team members. These interventions include new surgical instrumentation/equipment and ergonomic PPE (including exoskeletons), ergonomic positioning and microbreaks during surgery, use of simulation to create teamwork that can improve patient safety, enhancing briefings/time out and debriefings during surgery and other interventions. The actual experiences will be discussed in detail. The panel will discuss the successes and challenges and sometimes failures of their intervention and implementation along with what they would do the next time to make it better. There will be ample Q&A time with the audience to discuss.
Take away points include the 1) difficulty of the operating room environment with extra constraints such as sterility, size, specialty team members, hierarchy, regulations, etc. 2) the breadth of ergonomic interventions, 3) the special nature of implementation in this special environment with the hierarchy, etc. of the personnel and the rigidity of the regulations and the 4) joy when ergonomic interventions succeed.
Human factors and ergonomics researchers and practitioners have long studied the difficulties of health care workers in a system and the impact of these difficulties on patient safety. However, there has been fewer studies on interventions to correct the difficulties for healthcare workers and even fewer on how to best implement (both introducing and sustaining) these ergonomic interventions in health care, fewer yet in the specialized operating room environment.
This panel is comprised of both human factors engineers working in the surgical field and surgeons with expertise in human factors. This multi-specialty panel will discuss their experiences creating or specifying ergonomic interventions and implementing these interventions into the specialized and difficult operating room environment in the hospital with surgeons and surgical team members. These interventions include new surgical instrumentation/equipment and ergonomic PPE (including exoskeletons), ergonomic positioning and microbreaks during surgery, use of simulation to create teamwork that can improve patient safety, enhancing briefings/time out and debriefings during surgery and other interventions. The actual experiences will be discussed in detail. The panel will discuss the successes and challenges and sometimes failures of their intervention and implementation along with what they would do the next time to make it better. There will be ample Q&A time with the audience to discuss.
Take away points include the 1) difficulty of the operating room environment with extra constraints such as sterility, size, specialty team members, hierarchy, regulations, etc. 2) the breadth of ergonomic interventions, 3) the special nature of implementation in this special environment with the hierarchy, etc. of the personnel and the rigidity of the regulations and the 4) joy when ergonomic interventions succeed.
Event Type
Discussion Panel
TimeMonday, March 233:30pm - 4:30pm EDT
LocationMurray Hill West