Patient Safety in Pediatrics: Ergonomic Solutions for Safer Care of Children

Abstract

Epidemiological data from the literature are few for patient safety in pediatrics and there is a need for comparing experiences and applied solutions in different contexts. A study published in 2012 underlined that the 79% of adverse events in children happened in intensive care unit, the incidence on admissions is of 6,5 and 44,7% of these adverse events are preventable. The promotion of patient safety in pediatrics requires also patient and family programs of information and education to increase awareness about risk factors and behaviors to prevent harms. The aim of project is to design a multidimensional approach to patient safety and to pilot three patient safety practices: preventing children’s falls through the use of the Modify Humpty Dumpty Fall Scale validated in Italian; the appropriate transition of care and the early evaluation of patient deterioration through the Pediatric Early Warning Score. All pilots have been realized by adopting a systemic approach with solutions designed by taking into account the principles of ergonomic and human factors and applying them for the definition of cognitive, organizational and physical ergonomic solutions. In order to support the spreading of safety practices, a specific project of designing, implementing and evaluating of four cartoon video-vignettes on pediatric patient safety has been developed.