Today is National Time Out Day in hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers around the country. Taking a “time out” to confirm correct patient, correct procedure, correct surgical site, and other important information before every operative and other invasive procedure is a requirement of The Joint Commission Universal Protocol. Despite the requirement, 40-60 wrong-site surgeries likely occur in the U.S. each week.

Time Out Day was created by the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses in 2004 to raise awareness about the importance of requiring the entire surgical team 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.

Wrong patient, wrong site, wrong procedures are sentinel events – described by The Joint Commission as “an unexpected occurrence involving death or serious physical or psychological injury, or the risk thereof.”

To perioperative nurses, they are tragedies. That is why we as Perioperative Nurses at Madison Memorial Hospital and Madison Surgery Center commemorate National Time Out Day with this public commitment to our patients, their loved ones and the entire surgical community that We Will Always Take Time Out for each Patient, Every Time.