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American
Association of Nurse Anesthetists Endorsement of the Joint Commission
on Accreditation of Health Care Organization's New Universal Protocol
to Prevent Wrong Site, Wrong Procedure and Wrong Person Surgeries
More than
40 organizations have now endorsed a new Universal ProtocolTM
released by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare
Organizations (JCAHO) in a nationwide effort to eliminate
wrong site, wrong procedure, and wrong patient surgeries. The protocol
calls for standardization of pre-surgery procedures for verifying
the correct patient, the correct procedure, and the correct surgical
site. Below is the endorsement statement of this new JCAHO protocol
by the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA),
followed by the press release from JCAHO, a brochure and poster
for the new protocol, and links to the JCAHO website for more information.
The protocol
and guidelines for implementation may be viewed and/or
downloaded at the JCAHO website.
“In
keeping with our mission of advancing patient safety and excellence
in anesthesia, the the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists
(AANA) strongly endorses the Joint Commission’s new Universal
Protocol to Prevent Wrong Site, Wrong Procedure and Wrong Person
Surgeries. Patient safety is a joint effort involving every healthcare
provider in the operating room, including Certified Registered Nurse
Anesthetists (CRNAs). As anesthesia providers, CRNAs care for patients
before, during and after surgery, and are deeply committed to upholding
the patients’ sacred trust that their surgical and anesthetic
experience will be safe and comfortable. Wrong site, procedure,
or person surgeries are tragedies that should never occur. Because
these occurrences are the result of systems problems, a systematic
approach to correcting the problems is needed. The Joint Commission’s
new protocol, which impacts the actions of everyone in the operating
room for the benefit of the patient, is a means to that desirable
end.”
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