Blood sampling - Two sides to the story.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare quality and safety
• Human Factors and Ergonomics
• Patient blood management

Background:

• Variability in clinical practices, such as blood sampling, can impact patient safety.
• Understanding the root causes of this variability is essential for developing effective interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the factors contributing to variability in blood sampling procedures.
• To apply Human Factors/Ergonomics principles to analyze blood sampling performance.
• To utilize the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) to understand variability's influence on blood sampling functions.

Main Methods:

• A multi-method pilot study conducted in four National Health Service Scotland hospitals.
• Data collection included 50 observations, 15 interviews, and 12 months of incident data.
• Analysis employed Human Factors/Ergonomics principles and the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM).

Main Results:

• Analysis of 61 pre-blood transfusion sampling incidents revealed data limitations for performance factor understanding.
• FRAM identified that environmental factors, equipment, clinical context, workload, and staffing influenced blood sampling function variability.
• Variability was observed in the sequence of blood sampling functions and the number of practitioners involved.

Conclusions:

• Blood sampling activities exhibit inherent variability influenced by systemic factors.
• Future safety management strategies should consider system resilience to address blood sampling variability.
• This study provides a realistic perspective on blood sampling variations and their implications for patient safety.