“Make time for time out” is a national awareness day planned for the second Wednesday of the month each June. Co-sponsored by The Joint Commission (TJC) and Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) its purpose is to remind surgical/procedural teams to take a moment or “Time out” before every procedure begins to ensure the entire team is performing the correct procedure, on the precise location, for the right patient. Wrong site surgery occurs with alarming regularity, estimated to occur 40 times a week, or almost five times a day, in the United States.
To aid organizations in designing processes to guide and support staff in the performance of this essential process, The Joint Commission established its Universal Protocol and AORN also developed a Comprehensive Surgical Checklist to enable individual facilities to meet The Joint Commission’s Universal Protocol and the World Health Organization’s standards while customizing the checklist according to surgical specialties.
MAKE TIME to focus your team on this vital patient safety initiative by supporting “MAKE TIME FOR TIME OUT”. Access the collaborative commitment statement from AORN and TJC. Need help designing or assessing compliance with your TIME OUT process, contact C&A.
