Joint Commission journal on quality and patient safety / Joint Commission Resources
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Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf · Jun 2017
Introductions During Time-outs: Do Surgical Team Members Know One Another's Names?
Introductions are the first item of the time-out in the World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist (SSC). It has yet to be established that surgical teams use colleagues' names or consider the use of names important. A study was conducted to determine if using the SSC has a measurable impact on name retention and to assess if operating room (OR) personnel believe it is important to know the names of their colleagues or for their colleagues to know theirs. ⋯ This study suggests that OR personnel may consider introductions to be another bureaucratic hurdle instead of the safety check they were designed to be. It appears that this first step of the time-out is often being performed perfunctorily.