RO-ILS: Radiation Oncology Incident Learning System: A report from the first year of experience.

PURPOSE: Incident learning is a critical tool to improve patient safety. The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 established essential legal protections to allow for the collection and analysis of medical incidents nationwide. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Working with a federally listed patient safety organization (PSO), the American Society for Radiation Oncology and the American Association of Physicists in Medicine established RO-ILS: Radiation Oncology Incident Learning System (RO-ILS). This paper provides an overview of the RO-ILS background, development, structure, and workflow, as well as examples of preliminary data and lessons learned. RO-ILS is actively collecting, analyzing, and reporting patient safety events. RESULTS: As of February 24, 2015, 46 institutions have signed contracts with Clarity PSO, with 33 contracts pending. Of these, 27 sites have entered 739 patient safety events into local database space, with 358 events (48%) pushed to the national database. CONCLUSIONS: To establish an optimal safety culture, radiation oncology departments should establish formal systems for incident learning that include participation in a nationwide incident learning program such as RO-ILS.

Physician assistant and nurse practitioner utilization in radiation oncology within an academic medical center.

PURPOSE: To assess the utilization of physician extenders working in radiation oncology in an academic medical center and to identify opportunities to improve their utilization. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A workload analysis and patient flow analysis were conducted on physician extenders employed by the University of Michigan Health System Radiation Oncology Department in order to better understand their utilization and impact on patient flow. RESULTS: Nearly half (46%) of physician extender time was spent performing indirect patient care. Physician extenders performed most (84.3%) of the first encounters for follow-up appointments; however, these patients were seen independently by physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) only 51% of the time. Physician extenders perceived their utilization within the department would be improved with well-defined position goals (80%), less clerical work (40%), more involvement in treatment planning (40%), more training (40%), and more involvement with new patient consults (20%). Physicians felt the utilization of physician extenders could be improved by providing more training (33%), increased physician extender involvement in treatment planning (22%), increased physician extender involvement in new patient consults (11%), and increased autonomy (11%). CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the importance of collecting data to allow for evaluation of PA and NP performance and utilization. We have highlighted a unique methodology for analyzing physician extender duties and workflow that could be employed by other organizations and medical practices, regardless of specialty, to examine PA and NP deployment and to identify opportunities to optimize their utilization.

The application of lean thinking to the care of patients with bone and brain metastasis with radiation therapy.

PURPOSE: Patients with bone and brain metastases are among the most symptomatic nonemergency patients treated by radiation oncologists. Treatment should begin as soon as possible after the request is generated. We tested the hypothesis that the operational improvement method based on lean thinking could help streamline the treatment of our patients referred for bone and brain metastases. METHODS: University of Michigan Health System has adopted lean thinking as a consistent approach to quality and process improvement. We applied the principles and tools of lean thinking, especially value as defined by the customer, value stream mapping processes, and one piece flow, to improve the process of delivering care to patients referred for bone or brain metastases. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The initial evaluation of the process revealed that it was rather chaotic and highly variable. Implementation of the lean thinking principles permitted us to improve the process by cutting the number of individual steps to begin treatment from 27 to 16 and minimize variability by applying standardization. After an initial learning period, the percentage of new patients with brain or bone metastases receiving consultation, simulation, and treatment within the same day rose from 43% to nearly 95%. By implementing the ideas of lean thinking, we improved the delivery of clinical care for our patients with bone or brain metastases. We believe these principles can be applied to much of the care administered throughout our and other health care delivery areas.