Editor’s Note: This page is a companion piece to the main article, Emergency preparedness: Identifying essential supplies for unplanned surgical events. While the main article outlines the principles of emergency readiness and supply preparation in the OR, the posts below offer a closer look at two key implementation areas: Supply…

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Editor's Note Sentinel events reported to The Joint Commission increased by 12% in 2024, with patient falls once again leading the list of serious adverse events followed by wrong surgeries. The Joint Commission released the data in an annual review July 9.     Wrong surgery events increased 13% from the…

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Editor's Note On this National Time Out Day, perioperative leaders are being called to reinvigorate the time-out process to combat complacency and reduce adverse events. Despite decades of safety initiatives, the adverse event rate in surgical care remains high—38% of perioperative cases, with nearly half tied directly to surgical procedures,…

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Editor's Note Wrong-site surgeries are on the rise, and insufficient surgical time outs are a key contributor, according to new data highlighted by AORN on June 10 in honor of this year’s National Time Out Day on June 11. Based on The Joint Commission’s Sentinel Event Data 2023 Annual Review,…

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Editor’s Note Tertiary hospitals are embracing the World Health Organization (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist (SSC), yet inconsistent compliance—especially during time-out—exposes patients to avoidable risks, Cureus April 29 reports. In this study, the researchers found that while overall integration of the SSC is promising, there were compliance gaps particularly in pre-incision…

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Editor's Note Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are increasingly adopting a new wrong-site surgery prevention toolkit, introduced by the ASC Quality Collaboration (ASCQC) in late 2024, ASC Focus January 17 reports. Designed to improve patient safety, this complimentary resource is packed with materials tailored to address the unique challenges of preventing…

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Editor's Note US Representatives from California and Texas reintroduced the National Patient Safety Board (NPSB) Act, which aims to establish a public-private research and development team “dedicated to preventing and reducing healthcare-related harms." The March 11 announcement comes during Patient Safety Awareness Week, an annual awareness initiative focusing on the…

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Editor's Note National Time Out Day on June 14 renews attention on the surgical team to prevent wrong-site surgery by pausing before a surgical procedure begins to make sure it is the right site, right procedure, and right person, a June 7 joint statement by The Joint Commission and AORN…

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Editor's Note This study, published in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, analyzes 68 closed claims cases on wrong-site surgery from 2013 to 2020. The services most frequently responsible for these cases were: Orthopedics (35.3%) Neurosurgery (22.1%) Urology (8.8%). The most common types of procedures involving wrong-site…

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