ABSTRACT

Maximising safe handoff procedures ensures patient safety. Anaesthesiology practices have primarily focused on developing better communication tools. However, these tools tend to ignore the physical layout of the anaesthesia workspace itself. Standardising the anaesthesia workspace has the potential to improve patient safety. The design process should incorporate end user feedback and objective data.

This pilot project aims to design a standardised anaesthesia workspace using eye-tracking technology at a single university-affiliated Veterans Affairs hospital. Twelve practising anaesthesiologists observed a series of images representing five clinical scenarios. Each of these had a question prompting them to look for certain items commonly found in the anaesthesia workspace. Using eye-tracking technology, the gaze data of participants were recorded. These data were used to generate heat maps of the specific areas of interest in the workspace that received the most fixation counts.

The laryngoscope and propofol had the highest percentages of gaze fixations on the left-hand side of the workstation, in closest proximity to the anaesthesiologist. Atropine, although the highest percentage of gaze fixations (33%) placed it on the right-hand side of the workstation, also had 25% of gaze fixations centred over the anaesthesia cart.

Gaze fixation analyses showed that anaesthesiologists identified locations for the laryngoscope and propofol within easy reach and emergency medications further away. Because eye tracking can provide objective data to influence the design process, it may be useful when developing standardised anaesthesia workspace templates for individual practices.

Keywords: Eye tracking, workspace, anaesthesia, design, patient safety, handoffs