Standardised colour-coded compartmentalised syringe trays improve anaesthetic medication visual search and mitigate...

Area of Science:

• Medical Error Prevention
• Human Factors in Medicine
• Anaesthesiology

Background:

• Anaesthetic procedures are complex and prone to human error.
• Current interventions like organised syringe storage lack standardized implementation.
• Medication errors in anaesthesia pose significant patient safety risks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the efficacy of colour-coded compartmentalised trays versus conventional trays in a visual search task.
• To determine if colour-coded trays reduce search time and improve error detection.
• To assess the impact on behavioural and eye-movement responses.

Main Methods:

• Experimental psychology methods were employed with 40 volunteers.
• Participants identified syringe errors in pre-loaded trays (colour-coded vs. conventional).
• Both error-present and error-absent trials were conducted, with eye-tracking measures recorded.

Main Results:

• Errors were detected faster with colour-coded trays (11.1s vs. 13.0s, P=0.026).
• Eye-tracking showed more fixations on drug errors with colour-coded trays (5.3 vs. 4.3, P<0.001).
• Colour-coded trays reduced fixation times and cognitive load, indicating enhanced visual search efficacy.

Conclusions:

• Colour-coded compartmentalisation significantly enhances visual search efficacy for pre-loaded trays.
• These trays lead to performance improvements in medication error detection and task efficiency.
• The findings support the implementation of colour-coded compartmentalised trays to improve anaesthesia safety.