[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 150 Introduced in House (IH)]






109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 150

Recognizing the goals and ideals of a National Time Out Day to support 
     the universal protocol, developed by the Joint Commission on 
Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, for preventing errors in the 
                operating room, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 10, 2005

  Mr. Udall of Colorado submitted the following resolution; which was 
            referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Recognizing the goals and ideals of a National Time Out Day to support 
     the universal protocol, developed by the Joint Commission on 
Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, for preventing errors in the 
                operating room, and for other purposes.

Whereas, according to an Institute of Medicine report entitled ``To Err is 
        Human: Building a Safer Health System'', published in 2000, between 
        44,000 and 98,000 hospitalized individuals in the United States die each 
        year due to medical errors, and an untold thousands more suffer injury 
        or illness as a result of preventable errors;
Whereas there are more than 40,000,000 inpatient surgery procedures and 
        31,000,000 outpatient surgery procedures performed annually in the 
        United States;
Whereas for the first time, nurses, surgeons, and hospitals throughout the 
        country are being required by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of 
        Healthcare Organizations to adopt a common set of operating room 
        procedures in order to help curb the alarming number of deaths and 
        injuries due to medical errors;
Whereas the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has 
        developed a universal protocol which calls for surgical teams to call a 
        ``time out'' before surgeries begin in order to verify the patient's 
        identity, the procedure to be performed, and the site of the procedure, 
        and this protocol has been endorsed by over 50 national healthcare 
        organizations;
Whereas 4,579 accredited hospitals, 1,261 ambulatory care facilities, and 131 
        accredited office-based surgery centers were required by the Joint 
        Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations to adopt the 
        universal protocol effective July 1, 2004;
Whereas the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses has created an 
        Internet website and distributed 55,000 tool kits to healthcare 
        professionals throughout the country to assist them in implementing the 
        universal protocol; and
Whereas the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, the Joint Commission 
        on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the American College of 
        Surgeons, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the American 
        Hospital Association, and the American Society for Healthcare Risk 
        Management are celebrating National Time Out Day on June 22, 2005, to 
        support the universal protocol of the Joint Commission on Accreditation 
        of Healthcare Organization for preventing errors in the operating room: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved,  That the House of Representatives--
            (1) recognizes the goals and ideals of a National Time Out 
        Day, as designated by the Association of periOperative 
        Registered Nurses and endorsed by the American College of 
        Surgeons, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the 
        American Hospital Association, and the American Society for 
        Healthcare Risk Management, to support a universal protocol for 
        preventing errors in the operating room by the Joint Commission 
        on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; and
            (2) congratulates perioperative nurses and representatives 
        of surgical teams for working together to reduce medical errors 
        and to ensure the improved health and safety of surgical 
        patients.
                                 <all>