A Framework for Integrating Safety in Usability Engineering for Electronic Health Records

Abstract

Usability engineering approaches, borrowed from commercial software development, rarely hold safety as a significant design priority. This paper presents our approach for integrating safety into EHR usability testing and reporting. We present five insights gained in our attempts to better integrate safety into EHR usability testing and we present the Usability FMEA as a framework for more effectively integrating safety into usability testing. Takeaways from this presentation include 1): Usability testing has evolved out of non-safety critical environments; 2) Safety must be designed into test scenarios and scripts, and tested for explicitly; 3) The Usability FMEA with the SEIPS model can help to identify factors that may be affected by the implementation of a new technology; 4) Usability testing and evaluations should be extended into the post-implementation phase in client sites.