Document Detail


Learning from accident and error: avoiding the hazards of workload, stress, and routine interruptions in the emergency department.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  22168187     Owner:  NLM     Status:  In-Data-Review    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2011; 18:1246-1254 © 2011 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine ABSTRACT: This article presents a model of how a build-up of interruptions can shift the dynamics of the emergency department (ED) from an adaptive, self-regulating system into a fragile, crisis-prone one. Drawing on case studies of organizational disasters and insights from the theory of high-reliability organizations, the authors use computer simulations to show how the accumulation of small interruptions could have disproportionately large effects in the ED. In the face of a mounting workload created by interruptions, EDs, like other organizational systems, have tipping points, thresholds beyond which a vicious cycle can lead rather quickly to the collapse of normal operating routines and in the extreme to a crisis of organizational paralysis. The authors discuss some possible implications for emergency medicine, emphasizing the potential threat from routine, non-novel demands on EDs and raising the concern that EDs are operating closer to the precipitous edge of crisis as ED crowding exacerbates the problem.
Authors:
J Bradley Morrison; Jenny W Rudolph
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine     Volume:  18     ISSN:  1553-2712     ISO Abbreviation:  Acad Emerg Med     Publication Date:  2011 Dec 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2011-12-15     Completed Date:  -     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  9418450     Medline TA:  Acad Emerg Med     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  1246-54     Citation Subset:  IM    
Copyright Information:
© 2011 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.
Affiliation:
From the Brandeis International Business School (JBM), Waltham, MA; Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital; Department of Anaesthesia, Harvard Medical School; and Center for Medical Simulation (JWR), Cambridge, MA.
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