IV 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 456 
Supporting the goals and ideals of an annual National Time Out Day to 
promote patient safety and optimal outcomes in the operating room. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 5, 2007 
Ms. KAPTUR submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce 
RESOLUTION 
Supporting the goals and ideals 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 (IOM) report 
entitled ‘‘To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health Sys-
tem’’, 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; 
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•HRES 456 IH 
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 members of 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 Or-
ganizations, the American College of Surgeons, and the 
American Society for Healthcare Risk Management cele-
brated a National Time Out Day on Wednesday, June 
23, 2004, to promote the adoption of the Joint Commis-
sion on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations’ uni-
versal protocol for preventing wrong site surgery errors 
in United States operating rooms; 
Whereas the Senate during the 109th Congress supported a 
National Time Out Day in 2005 and 2006 on behalf of 
the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, the 
Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organi-
zations, the American College of Surgeons, and the 
American Society for Healthcare Risk Management to 
promote the adoption of the Joint Commission on Ac-
creditation of Healthcare Organizations’ universal pro-
tocol 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 Asso-
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•HRES 456 IH 
ciation of periOperative Registered Nurses distributed 
‘‘Safe Medication Administration Tool Kits’’ to more 
than 5,000 hospitals and 13,000 nurse managers or edu-
cators; 
Whereas the 109th Congress passed the Patient Safety and 
Quality Improvement Act of 2005 to provide for the im-
provement of patient safety and to reduce the incidence 
of events that adversely affect patient safety; 
Whereas the Association of PeriOperative Registered Nurses, 
joined by coalition partners, celebrated a National Time 
Out Day on June 21, 2006, for the purpose of promoting 
safe medication administration practices; 
Whereas the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses 
develops and issues with coalition partners universally-ac-
cepted 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 re-
duction 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 
will celebrate National Time Out Day on June 20, 2007, 
and has designated each third Wednesday of June there-
after as National Time Out Day, to promote patient safe-
ty and optimal outcomes in the operating room by focus-
ing on the reduction of medical errors, fostering better 
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communication among the members of the surgical team, 
and collaborating with coalition partners to establish uni-
versal protocols to increase quality and safety for surgical 
patients: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) supports the goals and ideals of an annual 
National Time Out Day as designated by the Asso-
ciation of periOperative Registered Nurses for ensur-
ing patient safety and optimal outcomes in the oper-
ating room; and 
(2) congratulates perioperative nurses and rep-
resentatives of surgical teams for working together 
to protect patient safety during all operative and 
other invasive procedures. 
Æ 
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