Surgery centers that want to comply with The Joint Commission’s new Universal Protocol^TM expectations come January 2009 better make sure their surgeons mark the surgerical site and the entire surgical team stops what it’s doing to participate verbally and visually during the timeout.

Editor’s note: HCPro’s sister publication Briefings on The Joint Commission recently conducted an e-mail interview with Peter B. Angood, MD, FRCS(C), FACS, FCCM, vice president and chief patient safety officer at The Joint Commission (formerly JCAHO). Angood provided the following insights into the Universal Protocol^™.

No matter what event or near miss sets the process in motion, every root cause analysis (RCA) includes:

• Information gathering
• Thorough analysis of that information
• Development of recommendations
• An action plan
• Reporting to leadership and other departments, The Joint Commission, and state agencies