Embedding Human Factors Expertise in the Trenches of Healthcare Operations

Have you ever wondered how human factors is applied in the frontlines of healthcare? What does it take to operate shoulder-to-shoulder with doctors, nurses, and all the different healthcare professionals? How do human factors practitioners adapt to the quirks and peculiarities of hospital operations? 

In this first of a series of webinars organized by HCTG, we invite four healthcare human factors practitioners to share what it's like being a human factors army of one (or 2, if you're lucky). The hour-long, podcast-style presentation dives deep into the trials and tribulations of working in hospitals, and explores what support and success looks like (hint: not always p<0.05). Amidst the MacGyver adventures, healthcare human factors practitioners play a vital role in translating research into practice. 

Hosted by SQ Yin, the show features Dr Laura Barg-Walkow, Ms Rebecca Berg, Ms Andrea Cooks, and Dr Kristen Webster. 

The webinar will be presented live on April 7 (Wed), 11am EST.

Presenters:

• Laura Barg-Walkow, Ph.D., is a Human Factors Engineer at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, CO. Dr. Barg-Walkow is clinically embedded in the patient safety department where she supports clinical operations. In this setting, she partners with a range of stakeholders and end users throughout the entire healthcare system. Dr. Barg-Walkow’s work focuses on applied projects to improve safety, satisfaction, and efficiency in healthcare organizations.
• Rebecca Berg, MS, is a Human Factors Engineer at Yale New Haven Health. Rebecca is embedded in SYN:APSE Center for Learning, Transformation, and Innovation.  She supports a range of projects including workflow analysis, facility design, work process development, as well as usability and device testing. 
• Andrea Cooks, MS, is a Human Factors Engineer at Cincinnati Children’s, where her role involves providing expertise through the application of human factors tools and methodologies, focusing on the prevention of patient and employee harm.  With over 19 years of experience, she has spent the majority of her career designing and improving systems and processes for the Air Force, but shifted her focus on healthcare, after spending an extended amount of time in multiple hospitals caring for a loved one. It was then she realized that using her human factors background and finding ways to make work easier and safer for healthcare staff was her new mission.
• Kristen Webster, PhD, is a Safety Consultant and a Human Factors Engineer at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. While she may be a new face at Cincinnati Children's, she is not new to human factors in healthcare, having spent more than 5 years in healthcare settings including hospitals, private offices, and public health departments. Kristen currently focuses her efforts on improving socio-technical systems in the perioperative department, sterile processing department, and supporting reduction in blood borne pathogen exposure (BBPE) and central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI).