Abstract
Intensive care units (ICUs) are complex environments within a hospital that take care of critically ill patients. The ICU provides several opportunities for human factors practitioners to design systems, environments, and clinical work flows that have a positive influence on patient care and health outcomes. In this issue of the Research Digest, I present a few guidelines that should be taken into account when designing a patient-centered ICU environment.
ICU staff interact with several patient-monitoring systems that help in detecting and treating events. When designing ICU displays, it is important to cater to the needs of different user groups. Doctors need trend data that enable them to validate the diagnosis of patients, whereas nurses want short-term data that help them with routine decision making (Li, Ku, Schumacher, & Seagull, 2013).
Data needs also vary depending on the environment. For example, in unidisciplinary ICUs, nurses want to focus on data, whereas in multidisciplinary ICUs, nurses want the ability to integrate data, clinical goals, and clinical interventions (Miller et al., 2009).
To maintain continuity of care, patient handoffs take place in ICUs. In order to reduce communication errors during handoffs, it is imperative that effective information transfer occur. Organizing handoff information (e.g., diagnosis, physical exam results, medications) in relation to the functional systems of the body (e.g., cardiology, renal) enables systematic organization and delivery of communication content (Abraham, Kannampallil, & Patel, 2014).
Visualization tools that display real-time vital sign trends, historical patient data (e.g., X-rays, lab work), and relationships between relevant patient parameters have the potential to reduce the cognitive load of ICU staff and promote team collaboration (Faiola, Srinivas, & Hillier, 2015).