Macroergonomics in Healthcare: Principles, Progress, and Prospects

Macroergonomics is a branch of human factors/ergonomics that can be, and indeed has been, of tremendous value to the healthcare domain. Macroergonomics offers healthcare a whole-systems orientation, a suite of methods, and numerous examples of interventions that can be successfully deployed in a variety of healthcare settings. This panel will first discuss how macroergonomic principles such as its whole-systems orientation can improve our understanding of the context of patient safety (Carayon) and the impact of health information technology (Hoonakker). Waterson (on behalf of Waterson and Eason) will present a sociotechnical analysis of a home care intervention for frail elderly patients. Wetterneck will present another multi-component intervention, this one in primary care. The panel will conclude with two examples of how macroergonomics has been used to address classic healthcare human factors issues: the implementation of electronic health records (Rivera-Rodriguez); and the classification of hazards (Gurses).