Accreditation

Greeley Reflections

Accreditation Connection, January 14, 2011

Revisiting the Universal Protocol for simple, one-person procedures

 

Part 7 of 7

Documenting the time out

Most of our clients have found that it adds little value to have an OR-like check list filled out for simple procedures. Instead, it's perfectly acceptable to use your standard procedural documentation to indicate that a time out was conducted. Some organizations use a simple pre-printed statement as part of the procedure note such as "a time out to verify the patient, procedure and site was conducted involving all team members immediately prior to the start of the procedure."

I don't think we'll miss the FAQs. Frankly, we'd love to see a little more clarity in the UP itself, but we feel that most organization will be able to use the UP's Elements of Performance and Rationale Statements to craft simple, efficient processes that will protect patients while eliminating meaningless operational and paperwork overhead.

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