Patient safety in external beam radiotherapy, results of the ACCIRAD project: Current status of proactive risk assessment, reactive analysis of events, and reporting and learning systems in Europe.

PURPOSE: To describe the current status of implementation of European directives for risk management in radiotherapy and to assess variability in risk management in the following areas: 1) in-country regulatory framework; 2) proactive risk assessment; (3) reactive analysis of events; and (4) reporting and learning systems. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The original data were collected as part of the ACCIRAD project through two online surveys. RESULTS: Risk assessment criteria are closely associated with quality assurance programs. Only 9/32 responding countries (28%) with national regulations reported clear "requirements" for proactive risk assessment and/or reactive risk analysis, with wide variability in assessment methods. Reporting of adverse error events is mandatory in most (70%) but not all surveyed countries. CONCLUSIONS: Most European countries have taken steps to implement European directives designed to reduce the probability and magnitude of accidents in radiotherapy. Variability between countries is substantial in terms of legal frameworks, tools used to conduct proactive risk assessment and reactive analysis of events, and in the reporting and learning systems utilized. These findings underscore the need for greater harmonisation in common terminology, classification and reporting practices across Europe to improve patient safety and to enable more reliable inter-country comparisons.

Patient safety in external beam radiotherapy - guidelines on risk assessment and analysis of adverse error-events and near misses: introducing the ACCIRAD project.

In 2011 the European Commission launched a tender to develop guidelines for risk analysis of accidental and unintended exposures in external beam radiotherapy. This tender was awarded to a consortium of 6 institutions, including the ESTRO, in late 2011. The project, denominated "ACCIRAD", recently finished the data collection phase. Data were collected by surveys administered in 38 European countries. Results indicate non-uniform implementation of event registration and classification, as well as incomplete or zero implementation of risk assessment and events analysis. Based on the survey results and analysis thereof, project leaders are currently drafting proposed guidelines entitled "Guidelines for patient safety in external beam radiotherapy - Guidelines on risk assessment and analysis of adverse-error events and near misses". The present article describes the aims and current status of the project, including results of the surveys.