Quality

Panel 02 - (INTERACTIVE) The How and Why of Applying Formal Risk Management Techniques for Quality Improvement

Moderator(s)

• 

  Suzanne Evans, MD

  Yale University

This session was proudly submitted as a joint session with AAPM. Radiation oncology is becoming not only more complex, but also advancing at a faster pace with a push for increased patient through-put. In response the members of the radiation therapy team (therapists, dosimetrists, physicists, nurses, MDs, administrators) become increasingly specialized, operating proficiently within their individual silos. The full process for patient treatment, from initial consult through radiation and onto follow-up care, is rarely completely understood by each team member. This leads to an increased risk of errors within the system. In order to improve overall safety, it is important to take the time to understand the workflow process, determine where errors are likely to occur and act to mitigate those errors. This is the approach of prospective risk management. In this proposed session, attendees will learn how to implement prospective risk management tools in a clinical setting from the physician perspective. Speaker 1 (Koren Smith) will give an overview of the educational tools being developed by an AAPM Work Group that supports the clinical rollout of formal risk management techniques. Speaker 2 (James Hayman) will describe the application of lean techniques in clinical practice sharing practical examples such as quality improvement for stereotactic radiosurgery and retreatment with multi-disciplinary engagement on the team. Speaker 3 (Per Halvorsen) will share examples from a community practice perspective sharing examples where failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) has been used such as evaluating the impact of prospective contour peer review.

Learning Objectives:

• Determine which formal risk analysis method may work with their team.
• Develop quality improvement efforts that involve multidisciplinary team members.
• Apply formal risk based analysis approaches in the clinical environment.

Presentations:

• 1:15 PM - 1:20 PM

  Introduction
  Speaker: Suzanne Evans, MD – Yale University
  
• 1:20 PM - 1:45 PM

  Tools available to make your team adept at applying risk management techniques in the clinic
  Speaker: Koren Smith, MS
  
• 1:45 PM - 2:10 PM

  A physician perspective on using lean techniques to improve quality
  Speaker: James Hayman, MD, FASTRO
  
• 2:10 PM - 2:35 PM

  A physicist perspective on multi-disciplinary engagement for quality improvement
  Speaker: Per Halvorsen, MS
  
• 2:35 PM - 2:45 PM

  Audience Q&A
  Speaker: Suzanne Evans, MD – Yale University