ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report “To Err is Human” the injuries from medical errors are immense and the majority of the errors do not result from individual recklessness but from the flaws in the way the healthcare is delivered. This study is about a five qualities (5Qs) model which is a system including Human Factors Approach to quality and Patient Safety. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the integrated 5Qs and ergonomic as a new approach to build an effective and safe patient care environment and provide the guard of reducing medical and non-medical errors and increasing patient safety. The new 5 Qs-Ergonomic approach can be used as diagnostic instrument to identify and understanding of how good ergonomics makes a service (medical or health service) easy to use and contribute to patient safety. This study provides an empirical base to understand the complex and multidimensional nature of the 5Q’s, ergonomics and medical and healthcare safety. Quantitative research strategy was utilized and a relevant sampling technique was used to collect quantitative data from 223 inpatients of 8 Chinese hospitals. Hypotheses were tested by using multiple regression analysis to the obtained data in SPSS. The study implies that although there is high human and non-human competences at the Chinese hospitals, the Ergonomics factors related to patient’s safety still needs to be improved to avoid any possibility of medical errors and other harm during the process of the care.
