The Cognitive Work Of Medication Safety: Preliminary Field Observations

Medication safety is an important aspect of care for older adults, particularly because of high rates of polypharmacy, or the use of four or more chronic medications. When these older adults are then hospitalized, they might travel across several different care settings, including triage, emergency departments, in-patient units, and eventually back home. At each transition, the patient’s medications must be carefully accounted for in order to understand their effect on care and to avoid missed doses. As the first step of an AHRQ-funded project, Team Alice researchers have been conducting field observations of the work that occurs across these different care settings to understand the cognitive and system processes that ensure medication safety. This presentation will share initial findings of these observations as well as a discussion of methodology and application of cognitive engineering approaches in fieldwork.

Connor Wurst is a 5th year PhD candidate in the UB industrial and systems engineering department. He received his bachelor's in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and is now advised by Dr. Huei-Yen Winnie Chen. His current research focuses primarily on cognitive engineering and expert decision-making with applications in healthcare and social work. He was awarded a grant by the Mark Diamond Research Fund to conduct his dissertation, which aims to model the foster care treatment planning process and the affects of an ecological interface on that process. As part of Team Alice, he is currently investigating practices of medication management and safety across transitions of care from hospital systems to home. After graduation, he will be continuing work with Team Alice as a post-doc and is exploring opportunities for a subsequent faculty position.