Physical distancing for care delivery in health care settings: Considerations and consequences

Vishala Parmasad; Julie A Keating; Pascale Carayon; Nasia Safdar

doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2020.12.014

Physical distancing for care delivery in health care settings: Considerations and consequences

Am J Infect Control. 2021 Aug;49(8):1085-1088. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2020.12.014. Epub 2020 Dec 24.

Authors

Vishala Parmasad¹, Julie A Keating², Pascale Carayon³, Nasia Safdar⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI.
² William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital, Madison, WI.
³ Wisconsin Institute for Healthcare Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI; Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI.
⁴ Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI; William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital, Madison, WI. Electronic address: ns2@medicine.wisc.edu.

Abstract

As health care systems explore new ways of delivering care for patients with and without COVID-19, they must consider how to maintain physical distancing among health care workers and patients. Physical distancing in high complexity systems such as health care is particularly challenging and may benefit from a human factors and systems engineering perspective. We discuss challenges to implementing and maintaining physical distancing in health care settings and present possible solutions from a human factors and systems engineering perspective.

Keywords: COVID-19; Disease transmission; Social distancing; Systems engineering initiative for patient safety.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Delivery of Health Care
Health Facilities
Humans
Physical Distancing*
SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding