Safe Table Forum

Think your procedure is safe just because it happens all the time? Think again. Across the country, routine procedures—line insertions, bedside scopes, injections, and more—are being done in hallways, exam rooms, and imaging suites with alarming informality. There’s often no standardized Time Out, checklist adherence varies, and there may be no hard stop before invasive actions are taken. Why? Because power dynamics, culture, and habit have quietly taught staff that these “everyday” procedures don’t warrant the same rigor as surgery. But when a patient stops breathing due to an undisclosed allergy or suffers a retained object injury, the consequences are just as real—only now, you’re outside the safety net of the OR.