title: Surgical site verification: A through Z.
abstract: Performing the correct procedure on the correct patient has always been of prime importance to all health care providers. For the past six years, it has been a patient safety initiative priority of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). Before JCAHO took the lead in this arena, however, health care facilities handled this issue with individualized policies and procedures. This became problematic because physicians practice in multiple institutions that could have conflicting policies, which could confuse the issue. This case study presents the evolution of the surgical side marking and site verification policy at St Joseph's Wayne Hospital, Wayne, NJ. It has been a painful process, requiring numerous policy rewrites with updated information as prescribed by JCAHO. Enforcing physician compliance and continually re-educating nurses with each new JCAHO change proved challenging. The marking of surgical sides and verification of all sites, however, has proven to be a collaborative effort with safe patient outcomes as the shared goal.
authors.affiliation: St Joseph's Wayne Hospital, NJ 07470, USA. ddunn@sjwh.org
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dunn
mesh_terms: D002985:Clinical Protocols; D003142:Communication; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000592:standards; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D016519:Hospitals, Religious; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007591:Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000379:methods / Q000451:nursing / Q000517:prevention & control*; D009515:New Jersey; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000458:organization & administration; D016134:Organizational Policy; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration; D010355:Patient Identification Systems / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D013527:Perioperative Nursing / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011300:Preoperative Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000451:nursing / Q000592:standards; D017751:Safety Management / Q000379:methods*; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000145:classification / Q000379:methods / Q000451:nursing; D017749:Total Quality Management; D014481:United States