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New York Radiation Oncology Group Proposes Safety Plan for Treatments
May 24, 2011
A group of radiation oncologists at North Shore-LIJ Health System in New York claim that the physicians have devised a plan for radiation therapy treatments “that will ensure that patients are protected at all points in the treatment process.”
Louis Potters, M.D., the chairman of radiation medicine for North Shore, and colleagues created a safety program by identifying the cause of errors so that they can be removed and addressed the variables that increase risk, according to Jamie Talan, in a report at http://www.northshorelij.com.
Patients are not treated until every aspect of the plan is accounted for, Dr. Potters stated in the report.
“We want to ensure that our patients are safe,” said Dr. Potters, who presented the plan at the 2011 American Radium Society Annual Meeting in May.
Potters et al identified the applications that go into delivering radiation therapy and used the clinic as a laboratory to understand the processes. Then the group mapped the process step-by-step.
“The research was necessary to identify the appropriate processes of care, break them down into the eight key components of care and make sure every step is in place before the patient arrives for treatment,” Dr. Potters explained.
Dr. Potters calls it their “no-fly” policy because treatment does not commence until every step is signed off on and ready to go. If every step is not completed, the appointment is postponed until the process is complete.
“The classic culture is not to make patients wait,” Dr. Potters said. “But it is more important to have all the stress points in the system running smoothly to ensure minimal risk for the patient.”
The research group assessed the treatment process for 520 cases over eight months in order to measure the time points and determine whether the time-to-treat improved over the course of the study. On average, the group pushed back 10 percent of the appointments.
After implementing the plan, the department went from a culture of ‘just in time’ to one of ‘proactive’ recognition to reschedule, according to the report. The group also reduced the number of “stops,” the times that an appointment had to be re-scheduled because a step in the process was not completed. During the first month of the study, the study group recorded 80 events that were stopped, compared to 20 following implementation of the plan.
“With complex technologies, resource-compromised staff and pressures to hasten treatment, the use of this process seems to reduce patient safety risks,” said Dr. Potters.
The plan also included educating patients on the “no-fly” policy and that any changes made to the schedule ultimately protected them.
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