Effectiveness of Surgical Timeouts for Wrong Site Surgery Timeouts challenge the surgical team to be thorough when reviewing the patient, procedure, site, signed consent and any known allergies corrected by the patient before undergoing surgery. The timeout extends to the operating room while the patient sleeps and the entire team agrees before the cut. This evidence-based project will evaluate the amount of surgical errors in regards to wrong-site surgeries using timeouts. Clinical Significance The importance of this clinical research is to study the impact of surgical timeout and how these errors continue to occur. The World Health Organization (2014) estimates that over 440,000 people die each year due to hospital errors and by 2015 every hospital will use a surgical safety checklist. Over 80,000 wrong-site surgical errors were reported from 1995-2010. Page (2006) claims that 4,000 wrong-site surgeries are performed in the United States each year, or 1 in 17,000 surgeries, the third most frequent life-threatening medical error (p 55). The importance of hospital errors is ranked as the third leading cause of death most of them are preventable errors. Surgical errors are preventable with accurate communication and the correct safety checklist in place. Communication within the operating room is imperative and all surgical staff are required to take a break to ensure this is completed and agreed upon. Surgical errors continue to occur and more research is needed to provide accurate and detailed data on where the problem exists. I chose to examine the use of the timeout tool in relation to the number of wrong-site surgeries and the impact they have on the patient. It's the nu......middle of paper......ow. Retrieved from http://www.hospitalsafetyscore.org/hospitalerrors-thirdleading-causeofdeathinus-improvementstooslowJoint Commission. (2011). Universal protocol. Retrieved from http://www.jointcommission.org/standards_information/up.aspx.Melnyk, B.M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2011). Ask compelling clinical questions. In Fineout-Overholt, E. & Stillwell, S.B. (Eds.), Evidence-based practice in nursing and healthcare: a guide to best practices (2nd ed.) (pp.26-33). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.Page, L. (2006). The system marks a new method to prevent wrong-site surgery. Mater Manag Health Care, 15, 55–56. Rydenfalt, C., Johansson, G., Odenrick, P., Akerman, K., Larsson, P. A. (2013). Compliance with the WHO surgical safety checklist: deviations and possible improvements. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 25, 182-187.