BMT Designers & Planners, Inc.4401 Ford Avenue, Suite 1000Alexandria, VA 22302703-920-7070www.dandp.com

BMT has recently completed extensive research of human perfor-mance and safety considerations for ambulance patient compartments. This work has supported the develop standards, guidelines, and con-cepts that reduce the risk of injury to both emergency medical services providers (EMSPs) and patients as well as improve overall patient care during transport.

BMT conducted user research to understand EMSPs, their tasks, and their work environment. This research included focus groups, interviews, task observation, and workshops. It was clear from the research that one of the greatest risks to EMSP and patient safety was poor patient compartment ergonomics and layout. Typical designs require EMSPs to either be unrestrained or out of their seats while the ambulance is in motion.

BMT applied a user-centered design approach, which incorporated frequent EMSP and industry input, to develop a comprehensive set of human factors engineering design requirements and criteria for improv-ing safety and patient care by keeping the EMSP safely seated and restrained. These were validated through iterative user review as well as modeling and simulation of design concepts. The requirements and criteria were used to provide human performance and safety input to an emerging ambulance design standard, and to author the Ambulance Patient Compartment Human Factors Design Guidebook.

BMT human factors engineers can help ambulance companies and manufacturers develop safer and more effective designs by:

• Working as an integral part of specification and engineering design teams to integrate human performance and safety considerations into ambulance design through user research, the application of user-centered design processes, 3D modelling, and specification development

• Helping EMS organizations and manufacturers interpret and apply design standards and the Guidebook to develop safer and more efficient patient compartment designs

• Evaluating the usability and ergonomics of existing and proposed ambulance patient compartment designs to identify how they can be enhanced

Human Factors Engineering Design for Ambulance Patient Compartments