Six to 10% of US patients sustain a surgical complication costing between $1.5-$5.9 billion annually, and half of these may be preventable. Miscommunication is the most common cause of surgical error and is responsible for complications such as hemorrhage, desaturation, and surgical site infection. The loud and complex operating room (OR) environment is a distinct threat to unobstructed communication between OR team members that compromised patient safety.
We are proud to announce that our team has received an R01 Grant Award in the amount of $1.9M from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to study patient safety in the OR over the next 5 years, as it relates to interdisciplinary communication. Our aim is to develop interventions surrounding issues such as multitasking, overlapping conversations and environmental noise using a systems approach to prevent, mitigate, and recover from miscommunication. These interventions will provide an essential foundation for improving OR team communication and enhancing patient safety.
Our team is comprised of clinicians, Human Factors experts, and sound acoustics experts in the following areas: surgery, nursing and anesthesia, ethnography and interprofessional teamwork, speech science, and sound manipulation. The three Human Factors experts bring complimentary expertise: systems engineering approaches in robotic surgery; teamwork, performance and communication in cybersecurity and aviation; and a human factors trained physician.