SEIPS 2.0: a human factors framework for studying and improving the work of healthcare professionals and patients

Abstract

Healthcare practitioners, patient safety leaders, educators, and researchers increasingly recognize the value of human factors/ergonomics and make use of the discipline’s person-centered models of sociotechnical systems. This paper first reviews one of the most widely used healthcare human factors systems models, the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) model, and then introduces an extended model, “SEIPS 2.0.” SEIPS 2.0 incorporates three novel concepts into the original model: configuration, engagement, and adaptation. The concept of configuration highlights the dynamic, hierarchical, and interactive properties of sociotechnical systems, making it possible to depict how health-related performance is shaped at “a moment in time.” Engagement conveys that various individuals and teams can perform health-related activities separately and collaboratively. Engaged individuals often include patients, family caregivers, and other non-professionals. Adaptation is introduced as a feedback mechanism that explains how dynamic systems evolve in planned and unplanned ways. Key implications and future directions for human factors research in healthcare are discussed.

Interruptions in the wild: Development of a sociotechnical systems model of interruptions in the emergency department through a systematic review

“…However, a linear one-task-one-person interruption scenario is rarely the case in health care environments (Wears and Perry, 2002;Karsh et al, 2006;Holden et al, 2013;Carayon et al, 2014;Werner and Holden, 2014). Although laboratory models can be useful for understanding "micro"-level process characteristics and potential impact of interruptions, they have not successfully accounted for interrupted task performance in the complex sociotechnical system environment (Carayon et al, 2006;Carayon et al, 2013;Carayon et al, 2014).…”

“Teamwork in hospitals”: A quasi-experimental study protocol applying a Human Factors approach

“…A theoretical framework and a theoretical understanding are needed to prevent weak links and to identify strengths. The SEIPS 2.0 model [36] provides a valuable lens to the theoretical understanding, which assists our research on interprofessional teamwork in a number of ways: 1) to reframe how to observe and monitor inter-professional teamwork, and interpret aspects of teamwork performance; 2) to explore more deeply what contextual factors influence the healthcare team's performance; 3) to measure the effect of inter-professional teamwork on patient safety and patient outcomes, and 4) to help move the discussion beyond the teamwork training events (i.e. using simulation), and to provide evidence-based recommendations on the content, duration and frequency of teamwork training programmes associated with the clinical evidence [26].…”

A framework of knowledge creation processes in participatory simulation of hospital work systems

“…The physical building is tightly connected with how the work is organised, how workers communicate, how workers apply different technologies, and how workers conduct work tasks. These interconnected elements together form a hospital work system Hallock, Alper, and Karsh 2006;Holden et al 2013). A work system has been defined as '…a system in which human participants and/or machines perform work using information, technology, and other resources to produce products and/or services for internal or external customers' (Alter 2006).…”