Current trends leverage the idea of “engineering safety into the overall health system to reduce errors and improve health outcomes. Research suggests that healthcare providers often deviate from intended opening practice when opening packaging containing sterile devices, and that this deviation significantly impacts the likelihood that a sterile device will encounter non-sterile surfaces during the transfer process. We objectively evaluated how different design features (color, symbol, text, shape morphology) impact healthcare providers’ ability to identify where to begin opening using a computer-based task and methods approved as STUDY 00008547. Fifty-six healthcare providers participated in the task, which investigated the use of color, text, symbol and morphology indicating opening feature on the ability to accurately (a binary variable) and quickly (continuous variable) identify the opening location. All features were tested at two levels (present and absent) and all were crossed and presented on three package types commonly used for medical devices (tear pouches, corner peel pouches and tray lids). The major findings from our study suggested that the presence of design cues on the three types of packages enabled quicker time to correct identification (p<0.0001). The presence of various combinations of design cues also contributed towards enhancing the accuracy of correctly identifying the opening location (p<0.0001). The only morphology trial displayed the lowest accuracy (62%) and longer time to correct response in the three package types. Professional experience of participants did not show significant difference on the accuracy (p=0.0514) or time (p=0.9738) to correct response in participants. Age showed a significant effect on response time (p= 0.0363). Keywords: Aseptic packaging, opening features, engineering safety, Human Factors, usability evaluation.
Read
