Application of the HEART method to enhance patient safety in the intensive care unit

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The intensive care unit (ICU) is a complex, dynamic, high stress and time-sensitive place. While a variety of rules and regulations provided to reduce medication errors in recent years, many studies have emphasized that medication errors still happen. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this investigation is to predict, reveal and assess medication errors among surgical intensive care unit (SICU) nurses. METHODS: This study was performed in one of the public hospitals in Shiraz, namely Shahid Faghihi hospital. The human error assessment and reduction technique (HEART) method was adopted to measure and assess medication errors in the ICU. RESULTS: Findings indicate that ICU nurses perform 27 main tasks and 125 sub-tasks. The results also showed that setting and using DC shock task has the highest human error probability value, and assessment of patients by a nutritionist has the lowest human error probability value. CONCLUSION: Medical errors are key challenges in the ICU. Therefore, alternative solutions to mitigate medication errors and enhance patient safety in the ICU are necessary. Although the technique can be used in healthcare; there is a need to localize the coefficients and definitions to achieve more accurate results and take appropriate controls. Employing experienced people and providing conditions that reduce the possibility of errors in nurses, increasing the number of staff, and developing specialized and simulated training were identified as the most important control strategies to reduce errors in nurses.

Estimating the impact of label design on reducing the risk of medication errors by applying HEART in drug administration

“…Literature on patient safety highlights the advantages of transferring and applying HRA methods to healthcare services [ 37 ]. There is evidence of theoretical contributions to the use of the HEART method in healthcare (Lyons et al [ 31 ]; Lyons [ 45 ]), as well as its application in areas such as surgery [ 38 , 39 ], radiotherapy [ 36 , 40 ], and blood transfusion [ 41 ].…”

Estimating the impact of label design on reducing the risk of medication errors by applying HEART in drug administration

“…Literature on patient safety highlights the advantages of transferring and applying HRA methods to healthcare services [37]. There is evidence of theoretical contributions to the use of the HEART method in healthcare (Lyons, 2004;Lyons, 2009), as well as its application in areas such as surgery [38], [39], radiotherapy [36], [40] and blood transfusion [41].…”