Human Error in Operating Rooms

Professionals such as surgeons, anesthetists, surgical nurses, anesthetic nurses, and individuals from the support services form the operating room teams [18]. These teams usually work under time pressure, and the effectiveness of team performance in the operating room environment is very important, as surgical tasks require the coordinated efforts of all involved individuals. The occurrence of a human error in such an environment can result in patient death or permanent damage to a patient. 

Classifications of human errors in operating rooms from the behavioral aspect. 

Finally, two examples of the human errors that belong to the workload distribution/distraction avoidance classification are the resident staff reading the technical manual, resulting in the patient not being adequately relaxed, and the consultant being distracted from making a decision to place a pulmonary artery catheter by problems identified by another operating facility. 

To study the occurrence of human errors in operating room environments effectively, it is important to understand the model representing operating room performance. The model is composed of the following four main elements [18]  

Studies of this model indicate the fact that there are numerous instances that can lead to the occurrence of human error in the operating room environment. Some of the observed problems associated with the operating team coordination are listed below [2]. 

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