Ophthalmology
Ophthalmic Surgery Resources

Ophthalmology OR Time-Out Board

Wrong site, wrong muscle, or wrong procedure surgery is a serious and preventable surgical error. Standard time-out procedures in an operating room take into account patient identification but may be inadequate for effective non-surgeon staff engagement due to the use of medical terminology and jargon with which the team may not be familiar. Utilization of a strabismus whiteboard during the time-out procedure before strabismus surgery is an important tool that can improve communication and potentially reduce surgical errors.

The Ophthalmology surgeons at Texas Children’s Hospital began a quality improvement project that combined an illustrated strabismus-specific whiteboard with a standardized time-out procedure to reduce wrong-site strabismus surgery. Surveys were given to surgeons and staff before instituting this process and again six months after using the whiteboard combined with a time-out. There was a marked increase in awareness of the eye to be operated on and the type of surgery among all operating room staff.

The time-out board used by Texas Children’s Ophthalmology is available for use by other institutions. The full-size design (36” x 24”) can be downloaded in .PDF format. There is also a link to purchase a 6mm PVC dry-erase board for use in an operating suite.