Latest News
NEW RESEARCH PAPER: What is the safety case for health IT? A study of assurance practices in T England
7th September 2018 - Mark Sujan has published a new paper in Safety Science. The paper`s objective: Health IT (HIT) systems are increasingly becoming a core infrastructural technology in healthcare. However, failures of these systems, under certain conditions, can lead to patient harm and as such the safety case for HIT has to be explicitly made. This study focuses on safety assurance practices of HIT in England and investigates how clinicians and engineers currently analyse, control and justify HIT safety risks. See more about the paper.
NEW RESEARCH PROJECT: SAM - Safety assurance of autonomous intravenous medication management systems – requirements and strategies
3rd September 2018 - HRA were awarded a grant from the Assuring Autonomy International Programme, which is managed jointly by Lloyds Register Foundation (a charity) to work with the University of Yorkwith the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust and NHS Digital to explore the safety assurance of autonomous intravenous medication management systems. See more about the project.
NEW STAFF: Dominic Furniss joins HRA
1st September 2018 - Dominic joined HRA after working at UCL as a postdoctoral researcher. See more about his bio.
NEW RESEARCH PAPER: On the application of Human Reliability Analysis in healthcare: Opportunities and challenges
30th June 2018 - David Embrey and Mark Sujan co-authored a paper for Reliability Engineering & System Safety. The abstract says: Safety in healthcare is a relatively recent field, but has received considerable attention over the past 15 years. Healthcare organisations have been encouraged to learn from safety management practices in other industries. In this paper we analyse opportunities and challenges for the application of Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) in healthcare. We consider the poor levels of reliability of many healthcare processes, performance variability, the absence of regulatory frameworks that incentivise proactive risk management, and the unique role of the patient. We conclude that HRA could provide a useful framework for the analysis and reduction of risk in healthcare, but techniques might have to be adapted and applied with due consideration of the specifics of the cultural and regulatory context of this domain. This includes clinical engagement with and ownership of the HRA process, greater focus on rigorous evaluation of cost-effectiveness of HRA techniques, and active involvement of patients.
The paper can be found here but contact Mark to request a copy of the paper if you don`t have access.
NEW STAFF: Mark Sujan joins HRA
1st June 2018 - Mark joined HRA after working at the University of Warwick as a senior lecturer. See more about his bio.
ARCHIVE: New Modular Training courses in Human Factors and Human Reliability
For Oil, Gas and Utilities Sectors
A comprehensive modular training programme comprising five one-day modules which can be taken independently or as a complete course.
Each day includes extensive hands-on workshops and case studies.
ARCHIVE: Human Reliability procedures surveys
Human Reliability has developed and applied targeted surveys in transport and other industries to assess procedure compliance. The survey tells our client about:
- Suitability of procedures.
- Degree of actual compliance.
- Reasons for non-compliance.
- Best routes to ensure that procedures are used, useful and owned by the workforce.
ARCHIVE: Human Reliability impact evaluation methodology
Many companies and public bodies now need to demonstrate their effectiveness. Human Reliability has developed tools which allow organisations to:
- Arrive at qualitative and quantitative measures of impact.
- Assess client and customer views of the organisation.
- Review internal processes and check their suitability for the clients.
ARCHIVE: Human Reliability incident reporting design
Incident and near-miss reporting is a proven tool in identifying risk and preventing error. But how well does your system perform? Are you gathering the right dataset and using the inputs to improve practices? Human Reliability has structured fast and effective systems to capitalise on reporting and ensure that risk is constantly reduced.
ARCHIVE: Human Reliability reporting culture and blame culture surveys
Many organisations have embraced the view that a no-blame or just culture is the best way to encourage learning and prevent error. In fact, though, it takes time and commitment to bring about cultural changes in an organisation.
Human Reliability has developed a survey methodology which:
- Measures reporting behaviour.
- Assesses the blame-model and other key factors in the organisation.
- Checks the organisation against industry benchmarks.
- Designs specific interventions to improve culture.