The Human Factors Foundation

Improving patient safety through systems design

The Human Factors Foundation is a non profit organisation dedicated to improving safety, performance, and outcomes in healthcare through the application of human factors science.

Human factors focuses on how people interact with systems, processes, technology, and environments. In healthcare, this means designing systems that support professionals to deliver safe, high-quality care — even under pressure.

We believe that preventable harm is not the result of individual failure, but of systems that have not been designed with human limitations in mind.

Our primary focus

Our Approach

We work with clinicians, educators, institutions, and policymakers to translate human factors science into practical tools, training, and frameworks that improve safety at the point of care.

Get involved

Learn more about our work, partner with us, or support our mission to improve patient safety in Trinidad and Tobago.

Our Mission

To empower healthcare teams across Trinidad to create safer systems and supportive open cultures through an awareness and understanding of Human Factors principles and theories and a systems approach to the safety of healthcare delivery.

Modern healthcare is one of the most complex work systems that exists, and this is especially true in Trinidad & Toibagos diverse healthcare landscape. Patient care needs and co-morbidities are increasingly complex, requiring effective communication and cohesive working across diverse multidisciplinary teams in both public and private settings.

Systems thinking seeks risk to patient safety everywhere in the system and across hierarchical boundaries such as management, leadership, teams, culture, communication, equipment, workspaces, and task design.

A Human Factors approach considers human capacity and limitations, and that inevitably people will make errors no matter how well trained they are or how much they intend to ‘do the right thing’. Adopting the principles and theories of Human Factors sciences helps us understand that safety strategy reliant on people at the ‘sharp end’ of care delivery to not make errors is flawed and fragile and that we must build safer healthcare systems, procedures, practices and cultures to support our healthcare teams and our patients.

At the Human Factors Foundation in Trinidad, we firmly believe that safety is everyone’s business and that we need to take an inclusive and participatory approach to improving safety by actively engaging and listening to every member of the healthcare team—from doctors and nurses to administrators, support staff, and community health workers.

Our work is grounded in the understanding that healthcare is a complex, high-risk environment, and that safety emerges from well-designed systems rather than individual vigilance alone.

Get in touch

For general enquiries, partnerships, education, or media requests, please contact us using the form or details below.

Location

St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago

Email

info@humanfactorsfoundation.tt