The impact of human error on medical procedures

BACKGROUND: Human error has been studied for large decades with special application to critical infrastructures and processes where the impact of such errors can induce severe or catastrophic consequences. In this sense it is of utmost importance to extend this type of analysis to other fields as medicine. OBJECTIVE: This study proposes a semi-quantitative human error risk assessment methodology, including the analysis of the so-called Performance Shaping Factors (PSFs), in order to contribute to health services improvement. METHODS: A questionnaire including the considered PSFs is answered in order to determine the impact of each PSF and its influence on human error. It allows performing a Human Error Risk Assessment (HERA) for both the patient (HERAp) and the quality of the service (HERAq). RESULTS: The results show the PSFs with the highest impact factor. After applying corrective measures, it is possible to observe the impact on the reduction of the risk for patient and for the quality of the service. CONCLUSIONS: The application of the methodology with the inclusion of the impact of PSFs allows minimizing or mitigating failure modes with greater risk as well as increasing patient safety and promoting a better quality of medical procedures.