J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 6 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 1 7
Pause After You Reposition Patients
E
veryone knows it
can get confusing
when you move a
patient from supine into prone
position, and the patient's left
leg is now on his right side. To
help minimize confusion and
the potential for wrong-site sur-
gery, we've starting using "paus-
es."
In every procedure, we per-
form a 3-step process: an initial
briefing while the patient is still
awake, a standard time out
before the incision and, finally,
a de-briefing before the surgeon
leaves the room. However, for
those times when a patient is
repositioned between those
steps, we pause.
For example, if a patient is undergoing an ear procedure and is
moved 180 degrees between the initial briefing and the time out, the
team pauses and confirms the procedure, the surgical site and the
marking. We also follow this process for patients receiving regional
blocks in pre-op, since they can sometimes require injections on dif-
ferent sides of their body.
Katherine L. Kirkham, MSN, RN, CNOR
University of Florida Health-Shands
TIMEOUT
X2
• LEFT OR RIGHT If you're repositioning the patient for a regional block or in
the OR, have staff pause to confirm the surgical site.
Katherine
L.
Kirkham,
MSN,
RN,
CNOR
Gainesville, Fla.
kirkhk@shands.ufl.edu
