Surgery Teams Across the U.S. Take Time Out in the Oper...( AORN National Time Out Day Supports C...),Health

AORN National Time Out Day Supports Correct Patient, Correct Procedure, and Correct Surgical Site

DENVER, June 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) annually promotes National Time Out Day, this year on June 17, to emphasize the importance of surgical teams taking a time out to confirm vital patient information before beginning every invasive procedure. Wrong-site surgery and other preventable mistakes still occur too frequently in operating rooms even though The Joint Commission requires all accredited health care facilities to practice a time out as part of its Universal Protocol and the World Health Organization (WHO) provides a safety checklist for surgical teams to use in operating rooms.

Surgical teams all understand the importance of pausing before invasive procedures so they can communicate as a group and confirm key information about the patient and procedure yet, as individuals, they can be unclear about their role in its facilitation. Brian Tepp, AORN membership director, noticed this common concern in Member Talk, the Association's online discussion board. "Members were asking each other for ideas and tips on how they could assure an effective time out," said Tepp. Based on this member feedback, AORN extended an open invitation to hospitals and ambulatory surgery facilities to videotape their team's process for the Association to share on its web site as examples. "We thought videos would be an excellent method to demonstrate best practices in action."

"As the leader in advocating for excellence in perioperative practice and healthcare, we always are looking for strategies that will further protect surgical patients," said Patrick Voight, RN, BSN, MSA, CNOR, AORN president. "National Time Out Day and the videos
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