Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Staff & Patient Safety - October 2013

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

Issue link: http://outpatientsurgery.uberflip.com/i/178791

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 5 of 65

Page 7 6 Steps to Site Marking Success Surgeons, staff and patients play important roles in preventing wrong-site surgery. David Bernard Senior Associate Editor THE RIGHT HAND Site marking represents the patient's voice during the pre-op time out for verification. The Institute of Medicine's landmark To Err is Human report 14 years ago called attention to the issue of preventable medical errors and sparked numerous patient safety initiatives, including the Universal Protocol and the "Sign Your Site" campaign. In spite of these site-marking safeguards, however, an estimated 40 wrong-site surgeries occur each week, according to the Joint Commission. Clearly, some site confirmation protocols fall short of fail-safe. Employ these strategies to ensure yours isn't one of them.

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Staff & Patient Safety - October 2013