Effect of clinician attention switching on workload and wrong-patient errors

Sunny S Lou; Seunghwan Kim; Derek Harford; Benjamin C Warner; Philip R O Payne; Joanna Abraham; Thomas Kannampallil

doi:10.1016/j.bja.2022.04.012

Effect of clinician attention switching on workload and wrong-patient errors

Br J Anaesth. 2022 Jul;129(1):e22-e24. doi: 10.1016/j.bja.2022.04.012. Epub 2022 May 12.

Authors

Sunny S Lou¹, Seunghwan Kim², Derek Harford³, Benjamin C Warner⁴, Philip R O Payne⁵, Joanna Abraham⁶, Thomas Kannampallil⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA; Institute for Informatics, School of Medicine, Washington University in St Louis, MO, USA.
² Institute for Informatics, School of Medicine, Washington University in St Louis, MO, USA; Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA.
³ Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA.
⁴ Department of Computer Science and Engineering, McKelvey School of Engineering, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA.
⁵ Institute for Informatics, School of Medicine, Washington University in St Louis, MO, USA; Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA; Department of Computer Science and Engineering, McKelvey School of Engineering, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA; Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA.
⁶ Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA; Institute for Informatics, School of Medicine, Washington University in St Louis, MO, USA; Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA.
⁷ Department of Anesthesiology, School of Medicine, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA; Institute for Informatics, School of Medicine, Washington University in St Louis, MO, USA; Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA; Department of Computer Science and Engineering, McKelvey School of Engineering, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, USA. Electronic address: thomas.k@wustl.edu.

No abstract available

Keywords: ICU; audit log; cognitive load; electronic health record; medical error; patient safety.

Publication types

Letter
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Attention
Humans
Medical Errors / prevention & control
Medication Errors*
Workload*

Grants and funding

T32 GM108539/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States