Abstract
The discipline of human factors and ergonomics is largely focused on principled development of generalizable solutions. The process is typically slow, spanning months, even years. A crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic presents a different problem. How can human factors and ergonomics professionals react quickly, within hours or days, to provide viable solutions to unanticipated problems as they become apparent? Here we report on a small project in which we were able to respond rapidly to an emergent COVID-19 requirement. Given time constraints, we had no opportunity to follow a systematic analysis and design strategy. Our development and testing strategies reveal lessons that can be applied more generally to development of human factors and ergonomics interventions within emerging crises.
Highlights
Anesthesiology teams, experienced in airway management, generally lack experience with the infection control procedures that are essential for the management of a highly infectious virus such as SARS-CoV-2
The general procedures for treating the surgical theater as a hot zone contained within and separated from a clean zone are understood. This primarily involved ensuring that staff and materials are subjected to infection control as they pass between hot and clean zones
The do--confirm strategy is used with normal checklists, which are for well-practiced procedures such as before engine start, before takeoff, and approach
Summary
Our goal is to illustrate how this can be done and to identify necessary foundations for future successful efforts like this
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