ments into metal trays so they don't clatter and close drawers gently
instead of slamming them with your hip. Replace carts with squeaky
wheels or squirt a little WD-40 on the axels. Every little bit helps when
it comes to reducing noise disruptions during surgery.
• Create "no interruption zones." These are times when surgical
team members must remain quiet to allow nurses, surgeons or anes-
thesia providers to focus on the critical stages of surgery — anesthesia
induction and emergence and surgical counts, to name a few. At these
important moments — actually, at all times during surgery — every
team member should feel empowered to ask for quiet when noise lev-
els begin to exceed the safety threshold or simply when they become
an annoyance or disturb their abilities to perform essential tasks.
OSM
Ms. Lawler (elawler@jointcommission.org) is a human factors engineer in
the office of quality and patient safety at the Joint Commission.
Safety
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