Human factors and systems engineering in critical care medicine: A scoping review

Our study used the PRISMA-ScR checklist to conduct a scoping review about the concepts of human factors (HF) and systems engineering (SE) in the intensive care unit (ICU). Using specific key words, we performed a literature search to collect relevant studies. We then used inclusion and exclusion criteria to narrow our pool of studies prior to data extraction. We performed data extraction on 64 studies. The main categories of interventions included workflow processes, communication/information transfer, technology implementation, palliative care and a combination of multiple components. We found that most interventions resulted in a positive impact. When the duration of the outcomes of the intervention was divided into categorial time frames, the most common reported duration was more than 6 months to 1 year though a significant portion of studies did not report such a duration. Most studies had interventions that focused on tasks and the care team. The least common type of area addressed by interventions was organizational conflicts.