Publications by authors named "Frank A Drews"
Background: To effectively promote vaccine uptake, it is important to understand which people are most and least inclined to be vaccinated and why. In this study, we examined predictors of COVID-19 vaccine uptake and reasons for non-vaccination.
Methods: We conducted an online English-language survey study in December-2020, January-2021, and March-2021.
Disinfection of central venous access device needleless connectors: A human factors analysis.
Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol
February 2024
Objective: Evidence-based central-line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) prevention guidelines recommend the use of an antiseptic scrub to disinfect needleless connectors before device access. Guideline noncompliance may render disinfection ineffective. The goal of this study was to observe needleless-connector disinfection practices and to identify perceived facilitators and barriers to best practices of needleless-connector access.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- - The study examined how both veterans and nonveterans coped with stress during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on changes in coping strategies over three different time points when vaccines became available.
- - Researchers used an online survey to gather responses on coping strategies and mental health symptoms from over 2,000 participants, finding three main coping styles: adaptive, distressed, and disengaged, with veterans showing different patterns compared to nonveterans.
- - The findings suggest that while many people changed their coping styles, maintaining the same style was linked to lower anxiety and depression levels, highlighting the importance of understanding coping dynamics for better mental health support in stressful situations.
In this online survey of 1,733 US adults in December 2021, respondents believed COVID-19 vaccines are less beneficial and less safe for someone who had already had COVID-19. Those who experienced COVID-19 after being vaccinated believed that the vaccines are less beneficial and less safe than those who had not. Findings highlight the need to better communicate evolving evidence of COVID-19 vaccine benefit and safety and to tailor communications to peoples' COVID-19 history and vaccination status.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, studies reported delays in health care usage due to safety concerns. Delays in care may result in increased morbidity and mortality from otherwise treatable conditions. Telehealth provides a safe alternative for patients to receive care when other circumstances make in-person care unavailable or unsafe, but information on patient experiences is limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To assess demographic, structural, and psychological predictors of risk-increasing and risk-decreasing behaviors METHODS: This study used data from an online longitudinal, three-wave COVID-19 survey (12/20-03/21) regarding the behaviors, attitudes, and experiences of US Veteran (n = 584) and non-Veteran (n = 346) adults.
Results: Inability to get groceries delivered emerged as the strongest predictor of more frequent risk-increasing behavior across all timepoints. Other consistent predictors of more frequent risk-increasing behavior and less frequent mask wearing included less worry about getting COVID-19, disbelief in science, belief in COVID-19 conspiracies, and negative perceptions of the state response.
A Novel Application of Risk-Risk Tradeoffs in Occupational Health: Nurses' Occupational Asthma and Infection Risk Perceptions Related to Cleaning and Disinfection during COVID-19.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
December 2022
Article Synopsis
- - Nurses are at risk for new onset occupational asthma (OA) due to exposure to cleaning and disinfection agents in healthcare, prompting a study to examine their preferences between risks of OA and respiratory viral infections.
- - An anonymous online survey asked nurses to weigh scenarios where they had to choose between increased OA risk to maintain infection risk or vice versa, revealing that over 70% preferred to accept higher infection risk if they believed they’d recover.
- - Most nurses were reluctant to take on a small risk of death to avoid increasing their OA risk, with personal factors like age, work experience, and knowledge of respiratory infections affecting their decisions, indicating a need for further research into these risk preferences.
Background: Spurred by the Coronavirus infectious disease 2019 pandemic, aerosol containment devices (ACDs) were developed to capture infectious respiratory aerosols generated by patients at their source. Prior reviews indicated that such devices had low evidence of effectiveness, but did not address how ACDs should be evaluated, how well they should perform, nor have clearly defined performance standards. Towards developing design criteria for ACDs, two questions were posed: 1) What characteristics have guided the design of ACDs? 2) How have these characteristics been evaluated?
Methods: A scoping review was performed consistent with PRISMA guidelines.
Importance: The effectiveness of public health measures implemented to mitigate the spread and impact of SARS-CoV-2 relies heavily on honesty and adherence from the general public.
Objective: To examine the frequency of, reasons for, and factors associated with misrepresentation and nonadherence regarding COVID-19 public health measures.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This survey study recruited a national, nonprobability sample of US adults to participate in an online survey using Qualtrics online panels (participation rate, 1811 of 2260 [80.
Purpose: Beliefs that the risks from a COVID-19 vaccine outweigh the risks from getting COVID-19 and concerns that the vaccine development process was rushed and lacking rigor have been identified as important drivers of hesitancy and refusal to get a COVID-19 vaccine. We tested whether messages designed to address these beliefs and concerns might promote intentions to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
Method: We conducted an online survey fielded between March 8-23, 2021 with US Veteran (n = 688) and non-Veteran (n = 387) respondents.
Purpose: Communicating about COVID-19 vaccine side effects and efficacy is crucial for promoting transparency and informed decision-making, but there is limited evidence on how to do so effectively.
Design: A within-subjects experiment.
Setting: Online survey from January 21 to February 6, 2021.
Purpose: A pharmacy services call center (PSCC) was implemented to centralize pharmacy phone calls and reduce interruptions of dispensing activities in 7 community pharmacies of an academic health center. An evaluation was conducted to define, quantify, and compare the numbers and types of phone interruptions before and 3 months after PSCC implementation.
Methods: Through structured, direct observation of pharmacy staff, the numbers and types of "breaks in task" (BIT) due to phone interruptions and other distractions were identified.
Objective: We present examples of laboratory and remote studies, with a focus on studies appropriate for medical device design and evaluation. From this review and description of extant options for remote testing, we provide methods and tools to achieve research goals remotely.
Background: The FDA mandates human factors evaluation of medical devices.
Purpose: Results of a study to determine whether reducing pharmacy phone call workload through implementation of a pharmacy services call center (PSCC) led to decreased employee workload, improved efficiency, and increased pharmacist availability for patient care are reported.
Methods: A pre-post study was conducted using the NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) instrument. Pharmacists, pharmacy technicians at 7 academic health center community pharmacies, and PSCC staff provided NASA-TLX data over 5 days during 3 data collection periods before and after PSCC implementation.
Background: Health care personnel (HCP) use of personal protective equipment (PPE) reduces infectious disease transmission. However, PPE compliance remains low. The objective of this study was to better understand how HCP perceptions factor into PPE decision making as well as how organizational processes and the environment impact behavior.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In healthcare, the goal of personal protective equipment (PPE) is to protect healthcare personnel (HCP) and patients from body fluids and infectious organisms via contact, droplet, or airborne transmission. The critical importance of using PPE properly is highlighted by 2 potentially fatal viral infections, severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus and Ebola virus, where HCP became infected while caring for patients due to errors in the use of PPE. However, PPE in dealing with less dangerous, but highly infectious organisms is important as well.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Hospitals use standard and transmission-based precautions, including personal protective equipment (PPE), to prevent the spread of infectious organisms. However, little attention has been paid to the potentially unique challenges of various healthcare personnel (HCP) in following precaution practices.
Methods: From September through December 2016, 5 physicians, 5 nurses, and 4 physical therapists were shadowed for 1 hour 30 minutes to 3 hours 15 minutes at an academic medical center.
Purpose: The process and methods used in an impact assessment of a centralized pharmacy call center on community pharmacy employee patient safety climate perceptions, telephone distractions/interruptions, and prescription filling efficiency are described.
Summary: A broad-based team designed a multi-faceted, pre-post call center implementation analysis that included multiple change assessment measures. First, yearly administration of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Community Pharmacy Survey on Patient Safety Culture was used to assess patient safety climate based on employee perceptions of a safe working environment and potential for errors due to interruptions and distractions.
Objective: Determine the effectiveness of a personal protective equipment (PPE)-free zone intervention on healthcare personnel (HCP) entry hand hygiene (HH) and PPE donning compliance in rooms of patients in contact precautions.
Design: Quasi-experimental, multicenter intervention, before-and-after study with concurrent controls.
Setting: All patient rooms on contact precautions on 16 units (5 medical-surgical, 6 intensive care, 5 specialty care units) at 3 acute-care facilities (2 academic medical centers, 1 Veterans Affairs hospital).
Objective: This study samples interruption frequency in intensive care unit (ICU) settings to assess the relationship between interruptions and common patient hazards.
Background: Task interruptions are accident contributors in numerous industries. Recently, studies on health care interruptions and their impact on patient hazards have received attention.
Objective: This article provides a review of areas that present significant challenges in infection prevention and control and describes human factors engineering (HFE) approaches that have been applied successfully to these areas. In addition, implications and recommendations for HFE use in future research are discussed.
Background: Infection prevention and control aims to prevent patients and health care personnel from acquiring preventable infections in healthcare.
Importance: Using personal protective equipment (PPE) and transmission-based precautions are primary strategies for reducing the transmission of infectious agents.
Objective: To identify and characterize failures in transmission-based precautions, including PPE use, by health care personnel that could result in self-contamination or transmission during routine, everyday hospital care.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This qualitative study involved direct observation inside and outside patient rooms on clinical units from March 1, 2016, to November 30, 2016.
Purpose: With electronic health records (EHRs) becoming ubiquitous, computer use in exam rooms during patient-provider interactions is commonplace. Although computer use brings many benefits to providers, and patients generally rate computer-use as having a positive impact, the use of mobile devices could eliminate existing issues, for example allowing providers to enter or review records while face-to-face with patients. Using mobile devices increases flexibility of providers, but also creates challenges associated with the mobile device itself.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImproving central line maintenance to reduce central line-associated bloodstream infections.
Am J Infect Control
November 2017
Objective: A human factors engineering-based intervention aimed at the modification of task behavior to increase adherence to best practices and the reduction of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI). The hypothesis was tested that a central line maintenance kit would improve adherence and reduce CLABSI compared with a standard, nonkit-based method of performing central line maintenance.
Design: The study design was a 29-month prospective, interventional, nonrandomized, observational, and clinical research study using a pre-post implementation assessment.
Objective: We conducted a literature search to examine the effects and experiences surrounding the transition from paper to electronic checklists in healthcare settings. We explore the types of electronic checklists being used in health care, how and where they were evaluated and seek to identify the successes and failures of using electronic checklists in healthcare, including use of checklists to ensure completeness of documentation in the electronic medical record.
Background: Formalized checklist use as a memory and decision aid in aviation has resulted in significant increases in safety in that domain.