Every Day is Time Out Day

On June 17, 2009 the AORN (Association of periOperative Registered Nurses) honored National Time Out Day.

“National Time Out Day reminds every member of the surgical team how critical it is to take time out for patient safety. Confirm correct patient, correct procedure, and correct surgical site before every invasive procedure.”

With ComplyMD, Every Day is Time Out Day. Our perioperative surgical documentation tool allows physicians and nurses to document in real-time the exact moment of the Surgical Time Out. So, there’s no question if it took place; there’s only evidence that the entire Surgical Team was in agreement at that time of the patient, procedure and site.

Time Outs are critically important in the Operating Suite. “Wrong-site surgery and other preventable mistakes still occur too frequently in US operating rooms.” These mistakes are often attributed to the Surgical Team not taking time to stop and assess the patient’s information and situation, but hurriedly rushing into each case and packing into a day as many surgeries as possible. Care is not always taken to assess the current situation with the current patient and make sure everyone is agreement on information regarding the patient, procedure and site before one incision is made.

This is why in 2004, “Joint Commission released the Universal Protocol urging that a ‘time out’ precede every surgical procedure to verify the correct patient information prior to incision. In support of the Universal Protocol, AORN began sponsoring National Time Out Day to raise awareness about the importance of requiring the entire surgical team—including physicians, nurses, and surgical technologists—to pause before all invasive procedures to communicate as a group and confirm key information about the patient and procedure to help prevent errors from occurring.”

Notice that phrase “key information about the patient” in the sentence above? Patient ID, procedure and site are important to ‘check’ before all procedures. But what about other “key information”? For example, “patient is allergic to penicillin”, “patient with an old MI”, “patient has COPD”, “patient is deaf”, etc. All of these (I would hope) qualify as “key information”. And most all of these would impact the way the Surgical Team cares for the patient, right? ComplyMD offers the luxury of having all of that information right in front of the Surgical Team at the Time Out on one single screen. So, nurses and docs don’t have to spend time flipping through the patient chart to find all the info, it is all captured on one easy-to-read screen (or printout). The ComplyMD Time Out is not only effective but efficient.

Consistent use of ComplyMD’s Surgical Time Out entry field satisfies Joint Commission’s requirement for the Time Out to be documented just before every invasive procedure.

“This year, AORN collaborated with American Nurses Association, the American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgical Facilities, the Council on Surgical & Perioperative Safety, and The Joint Commission to create a poster to remind professionals, health care providers, and administrators that ‘Every Day is Time Out Day.’”

They also had a National Time Out Day Video Content. To view some of the vidoes that demonstrate the Surgical Time Out procedure, click here and scroll down.