III 109th CONGRESS 2d Session S. RES. 482 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES May 17, 2006 Ms. Landrieu (for herself, Mr. Biden, Mr. Lugar, and Ms. Collins) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions June 15, 2006 Committee discharged; considered and agreed to RESOLUTION Supporting the goals of an annual National Time-Out Day to promote patient safety and optimal outcomes in the operating room.

Whereas according to an Institute of Medicine (referred to in this resolution as the IOM) report entitled To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System, published in 2000, between 44,000 and 98,000 hospitalized people in the United States die each year due to medical errors, and untold thousands more suffer injury or illness as a result of preventable errors; Whereas the IOM report recommends the establishment of a national goal of reducing the number of medical errors by 50 percent over 5 years; 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 it is the right of every patient to receive the highest quality of care in all surgical settings; Whereas a patient is the most vulnerable and unable to make decisions on their own behalf during a surgical or invasive procedure due to anesthesia or other sedation; Whereas improved communication among the surgical team and a reduction in medical errors in the operating room are essential for optimal outcomes during operative or other invasive procedures; Whereas the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the American College of Surgeons, and the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management celebrated a National Time-Out Day on June 23, 2004, to promote the adoption of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations’ universal protocol for preventing wrong site surgery errors in operating rooms in the United States; Whereas the Senate during the 109th Congress supported a National Time-Out Day in 2005 on behalf of the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the American College of Surgeons, and the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management to promote the adoption of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations’ universal protocol for preventing errors in the operating room; Whereas the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, joined by coalition partners, celebrated a National Time-Out Day on June 22, 2005, for the purpose of promoting safe medication administration practices and the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses distributed Safe Medication Administration Tool Kits to more than 5,000 hospitals and 13,000 nurse managers or educators; Whereas the 109th Congress passed the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 to provide for the improvement of patient safety and to reduce the incidence of events that adversely affect patient safety; Whereas the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses develops and issues, with coalition partners, universally-accepted authoritative statements, recommended guidelines, best practice guidelines, and competency statements for how to provide optimal care for patients in the operating room; Whereas there is nationally-focused attention on improving patient safety in all healthcare facilities through the reduction of medical errors; Whereas the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, the recognized leader in patient safety in the operating room, promotes the highest quality of patient care during all operative or invasive procedures; and Whereas the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses designates and celebrates National Time-Out Day on June 21, 2006, and each third Wednesday of June thereafter to promote patient safety and optimal outcomes in the operating room by focusing on the reduction of medical errors, fostering better communication among the members of the surgical team, and collaborating with coalition partners to establish universal protocols to increase quality and safety for surgical patients: Now, therefore, be it

That the Senate— (1)supports the goals and ideal of an annual National Time-Out Day as designated by the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses for ensuring patient safety and optimal outcomes in the operating room; and (2)congratulates perioperative nurses and representatives of surgical teams for working together to protect patient safety during all operative and other invasive procedures.