The Role of Human Factors in Home Health Care

The rapid growth of home health care has raised many unsolved issues and will have consequences that are far too broad for any one group to analyze in their entirety. Yet a major influence on the safety, quality, and effectiveness of home health care will be the set of issues encompassed by the field of human factors research—the discipline of applying what is known about human capabilities and limitations to the design of products, processes, systems, and work environments.

To address these challenges, the National Research Council began a multidisciplinary study to examine a diverse range of behavioral and human factors issues resulting from the increasing migration of medical devices, technologies, and care practices into the home. Its goal is to lay the groundwork for a thorough integration of human factors research with the design and implementation of home health care devices, technologies, and practices.

On October 1 and 2, 2009, a group of human factors and other experts met to consider a diverse range of behavioral and human factors issues associated with the increasing migration of medical devices, technologies, and care practices into the home. This book is a summary of that workshop, representing the culmination of the first phase of the study.

Table of Contents

• Front Matter
• Part I: Workshop Summary
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The People Who Receive and Provide Home Health Care
• 3 Home Health Care Tasks and Tools
• 4 The Environments of Home Health Care
• 5 Concluding Discussion
• Part II: Workshop Papers
• 6 The Health Care Challenge: Matching Care to People inTheir Home Environments--Neil Charness
• 7 Informal Caregivers in the United States: Prevalence, Caregiver Characteristics, and Ability to Provide Care--Richard Schulz and Connie A. Tompkins
• 8 Medical Devices in Home Health Care--Molly Follette Story
• 9 Information Technology and Systems in Home Health Care--George Demiris
• 10 The Physical Environment and Home Health Care--Jonathan Sanford
• 11 Impact of Cultural, Social, and Community Environments on Home Care--Steven M. Albert
• 12 Effects of Policy, Reimbursement, and Regulation on Home Health Care--Peter A. Boling
• Appendix: Workshop Agenda and Participants
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