Photo gallery: Faculty, staff celebrate National Time Out Day
On Wednesday, Michigan Medicine team members celebrated National Time Out Day, which encourages health systems to refocus on time outs and re-emphasize their importance.
What are time outs?
It’s a Joint Commission-mandated event — and a best practice — that takes place before every procedure or surgery.
“A time out is a script that you read from when everyone is in the room that confirms a patient’s name, date of birth, the site and side of the procedure, the form of any anesthesia being used, fire safety concerns and more,” said Sreelatha Ponnaluri-Wears, project manager in the Michigan Medicine Quality Department and lead of the Periprocedural Safety and Quality Improvement Program, or PSQIP.
In short, it reinforces anything that those in a room need to know before a procedure begins.