Centre of Excellence in Healthcare Human Factors

On World Patient Safety Day on 17 September 2026, EMHS formally launched its Centre of Excellence in Healthcare Human Factors.

Its role is to embed safety concepts from other safety critical industries like mining and aviation into healthcare operations, supporting EMHS to build more resilient health systems that protect staff and patients from harm.

The scientific discipline of Human Factors relates to everything from safer prescribing practices to communicating well in diverse interdisciplinary teams and designing effective rosters and workspaces. 

A first for the western pacific, the Centre takes a collaborative approach alongside local and international experts in Human Factors, advocating for a contemporary safety culture.

Meet the staff at the clinician-led Centre: Coordinator Christelle Auffray, Director Dr Thy Do and Manager Erin Bridson.

Four areas of focus

RPH has offered Human Factors training since 2017 and the formal opening of the Centre expands its reach into four areas of focus:

• Research – realise collaborative national and global research relationships to conduct study in areas of relevance or challenge to EMHS
• Education - deliver structured and standardised training in core foundational topics to frontline operational healthcare staff
• Simulation-based competencies – develop formative assessments and simulation-based exercises for capacity building of human factors competencies using behavioural markers
• Services improvement – conduct local targeted and strategic clinical services improvement projects at all EMHS sites.
  
   

Aim

The aim is to design healthcare services so staff in hospitals can better anticipate, adapt and recover safely from unexpected challenges. In an era of tight health budgets, an ageing population and high demand on our hospitals, safety of our staff and patients must sit at the forefront of decision-making.

Clinicians intuitively recognise the contribution that human factors play in the outcome of many critical processes that occur in healthcare hundreds of times each day. Guidance from the Centre clinicians will help formalise that understanding through standardized and structured training.

When the Nexus foundational training in Healthcare Human Factors was established in 2017, it was a first for Australia. The course has since been accredited by several medical and nursing professional colleges. RPH has since trained more than 4,500 healthcare staff.

Be sure to engage with the Centre staff and consider how Human Factors can be applied in your own clinical areas. 

The World Health Organisation defines patient safety as: 

 “a framework of organised activities that creates cultures, processes, procedures, behaviours, technology and environment in health care that consistently and sustainably lower risks, reduces the occurrence of avoidable harm, make errors less likely and reduces the impact of harm when it does occur.”