Effort disseminates communication tools to help convey work to prevent wrong procedures

The Minnesota Safe Surgery Coalition (MSSC) Time Out Campaign will launch June 15 to help prevent wrong-site, wrong-procedure and wrong-patient adverse health events from occurring during invasive procedures.

Under the campaign, participants pledge to ensure that the 5 Key Steps of the Minnesota Time Out are conducted for every patient, every procedure, every time. With a tagline of "Take 60 seconds to get it right (or left)," the kick-off coincides with National Time Out Day.

A time out is a dedicated period in which surgical staff members must cease all activity before beginning any invasive procedure to verify that the patient they are about to operate upon is who the staff members believe him or her to be, and that staff members are about to perform the appropriate procedure on that patient.

The initiative is a component of the Minnesota Hospital Association's (MHA's) SAFE SITE patient safety campaign, and it asks hospitals to engage staff in the time-out process and communicate time-out expectations across their organization. The year-long time-out program seeks to eliminate these types of adverse events within three years. MHA was a founding partner of MSSC.

"We cannot be successful without the commitment of every Minnesota health-care organization that conducts surgical and other invasive procedures," MHA President and CEO Lawrence Massa has said of the work. "This is clearly an aggressive goal, but we believe it is a necessary one to support our long-held position that even one preventable adverse event is too many. The campaign presents a tremendous opportunity to improve care for Minnesota patients and to continue to demonstrate our leadership in putting patients first."

Under the launch, the following types of tools will be available to help participants communicate their efforts internally and externally: a poster for staff to pledge their support and receive an "I pledged" sticker; a DVD video showing surgeon testimonials in support of the time out; a template employee newsletter article; a template news release; and tips on how to host a staff pledging event. All are available on the Time Out website.

Participating MHA hospitals are also asked to send information and photos about their hospital's time-out activities to Martha Parsons, MHA communication specialist/writer, for sharing with others via a future newsletter article and via MHA's website. Please send the materials to Parsons by Tuesday, June 21.

Nearly 80 Minnesota hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers are already taking part. Those that have joined will be listed as a "time out provider organization" on the Safe Surgery Coalition website.

Find the Minnesota Time Out pledge form [DOC] and an overview of the Minnesota Safe Surgery Coalition and the campaign here: [DOC].

For more information, contact Jan Hennings, MHA communications director, at (651) 603-3594; or Julie Apold, MHA director of patient safety, at (651) 603-3538.