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Post Your Prices Online - September 2013 - Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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OSE_1309_part3_Layout 1 9/6/13 12:21 PM Page 136 TEAM COMMUNICATION The circulating nurse should use active-response questions, such as, "What is the name of the patient?" Get the Most Out of Your Time Out Construct time outs so that your surgeons and staff are engaged. John R. Clarke, MD | Philadelphia, Pa. W rong-site/-side/-patient surgeries occur about once per 58,000 cases. The figure is about 1 in 13,000 when you're talking about anesthetic blocks, and 1 in 4,000 for ureteral stents. Compare those numbers with OR fires, which occur approximately 1 in every 300,000 surgeries. We can and must improve, at least to 1 in a million — though zero is always the goal. Why do wrong events still occur? First, although the solutions from the Joint Commission — the 3-step Universal Protocol — represent common-sense solutions, they're not based on scientific study, and didn't identify the best practices that prevent wrong-site surgery. Another reason is that providers are not aware of, or choose not to follow, best practices, so that they end up going through the motions of the Universal Protocol, but in a way that's not effective. For example, many time outs consist of "This is Mary Jones. We are doing a right knee arthroscopy. Does everyone agree?" followed by no response. I have personally 1 3 6 O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | S E P T E M B E R 2013

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