Human factors and safety in endoscopy

Abstract

Human factors are prevalent in healthcare and can impact on patient outcomes. Defining and understanding human factors is a key aspect of improving patient safety. Human factor issues can manifest as active and latent failures that impact on wider safety systems. This article outlines two cases that highlight the importance of human factors in endoscopy and defines learning points that can be applied in practice. Safety in endoscopy has classically been defined in simple terms and through hard outcomes, such as mortality. However, it is known that within endoscopy patient safety incidents are common and they may not all necessarily lead to harm. These are often difficult to measure, and there is a growing understanding of the complexities of safety measurement. Additionally, there are increasing challenges to promoting safety in modern-day endoscopy, due to increasing numbers and complexities of patients and procedures. A novel national strategy has been designed to address these challenges and promote a positive shift to improving safety in endoscopy.