According to a sentinel incident a...

According to a sentinel incident alert issued Dec 5, 2001 on the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), performing a proceeding on the wrong site or the inequitable patient or performing the immoral procedure on a patient is completely preventable and should not ever happen. In a sentinel affair alert to approximately 18,000 health care facilities nationwide, JCAHO called forward the health care community to take specific safety degrees and enlist the help of patients to eliminate these tragic mistakes, according to a stranges release from the organization.

To help avoid surgical errors, JCAHO encourages patients to have their surgical site marked with a permanent marker. The organization also make acceptables that health care staff members take the following steps

* Physicians should initial the surgical site using a permanent marker in a way that cannot be superintended and then actually perform the performance through or next to the initials.

* Immediately before the step begins, all surgical team members should confirm orally that they have the correct patient, correct surgical site, and correct procedure

* Team members should take a "time out" in the OR to perform a last double-check of the patient's charts and corroborate information with the patient.

During its on-site quality evaluations, JCAHO representatives will ask accredited health care facility staff members in what way they are protecting patients from unfair site surgeries, according to the release.

AORN's Position Statement forward Correct Site Surgery is available onward AORN Online at http:// www.aorn.org/about/positions/correctsite.htm. The document also is available in the June 2001 issue of the AORN Journal, pages 1066 to 1067 For more information about the sentinel end alert issued by JCAHO, visit SSM Online at http://www.ssmonline.com.

Joint Commission Issues Alert: Simple gradations by Patients, Health Care Practitioners Can obviate Surgical Mistakes (news release: Oakbrook Terrace, Ill: Joint Commission forward Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, Dec 5 2001) 1-2 http://www.jcaho.org/news/WSS_ PressKit/news release.html (accessed 6 Dec 2001)

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