Older Adult Patients and Care Partners as Knowledge Brokers in Fragmented Health Care

Improving Healthcare Practice Through the Implementation of Human Factors and Ergonomics Principles

OBJECTIVE

Present a collection of papers focusing on improving healthcare practice through the implementation of human factors and ergonomics principles that were presented at the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) 2021 international conference.

BACKGROUND

The mission of the IEA is to elaborate and advance ergonomics science and practice and to expand its scope of application.

METHOD

We reviewed papers that were submitted for presentation at the IEA 2021 international conference and focused on improving healthcare practice through the implementation of human factors and ergonomics principles.

RESULTS

The eight papers that are included in this special issue cover varied aspects of human factors application and implementation.

CONCLUSION

This special issue provides clear evidence that the science of human factors is relevant and is continuing to grow and so is its implementation in healthcare.

APPLICATION

This special issue offers a selection of applied works, providing a wide scope of human factors guidelines, methods, and theories in healthcare work environments.

Defining and enhancing collaboration between community pharmacists and primary care providers to improve medication safety

INTRODUCTION

Over 4 billion prescriptions are dispensed each year to patients in the United States, with the number of prescriptions continuing to increase. There is a growing recognition of pharmacists' potential in improving medication safety in community settings, in collaboration with primary care providers (PCPs). However, the nature of collaboration has not been well defined, and barriers and strategies are not articulated.

AREA COVERED

For this narrative review, published studies were retrieved from PubMed between January 2000 and December 2020. Search terms included "patient safety," "medication safety," "collaboration," "primary care physician," and "community pharmacy." Resulting articles were categorized as follows: defining collaboration, types of collaboration, and barriers and solutions to collaboration.

EXPERT OPINION

It is important to understand the factors within a community pharmacy setting that limit or facilitate community pharmacists' participation in medication safety activities. Strategies such as medication review are a common form of collaboration. Barriers to collaboration include misconceptions regarding roles and differences in access to clinical information and community pharmacy practice variability. Future recommendations include increasing training and utilization of pharmacists/PCP teams, increasing community pharmacists' practice in emerging roles, and expanding the community pharmacist role in transitions of care from the hospital to the community.