A Comprehensive Quality Assurance Program for Personnel and Procedures in Radiation Oncology: Value of Voluntary Error Reporting and Checklists

摘要

This report describes the value of a voluntary error reporting system and the impact of quality assurance measures including checklists and timeouts on error rates in patients receiving radiation therapy. A total of 256 errors in 139 patients were recorded, and the staff compliance rate for checklists and timeouts was 97%. These quality assurance measures significantly reduced many categories of errors and eliminated errors related to wrong patient, wrong site, and wrong dose.