At Provision CARES Proton Therapy, we are dedicated to providing a safe workplace for our employees and a safe treatment environment for our patients. Just this month, our Provision CARES Cancer Center team in Knoxville received the official Accreditation Certificate issued by ASTRO (“Accreditation Certificate”). To receive this accreditation, the team was required to focus on five pillars of patient care. One of the five pillars of patient care is safety. The team demonstrated and committed to the highest standards of safety through daily processes and procedures. To read more about the Accreditation process and this achievement see our previous blog here.
In 1999, the Institute of Medicine published a report entitled “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System”. They stated that “Errors can be prevented by designing systems that make it hard for people to do the wrong thing and easy for people to do the right thing”. They found two key opportunities for improvements: standardization of procedures and regular validation of professional competence. To ensure this safety, Provision CARES Proton Therapy is enrolled in RO-ILS, the Radiation Oncology Incident Learning System. RO-ILS is a free web-based portal that allows users to document opportunities to improve the safety of the treatments we provide everyday. RO-ILS was developed by ASTRO in 2014 and has more than 350 facilities participating across the country.
As a part of this program to provide a safe environment for both patients and team members, every Provision employee is encouraged to report process improvements (big or small) as they happen. The team implemented a RO-ILS review committee that consists of a member from every department in the clinic. Each month, this committee meets to review each submission and assigns it to a committee member. This committee member will delve deeper into each submission and provide feedback to the committee on proper follow up, if necessary. This follow-up is then put in to action in the clinic and reviewed later to ensure the workflow opportunity has been optimized.
Since Provision started this program, we have seen an improvement in reporting, and the submissions are primarily process improvements. The program shows that Provision has a safe working and treating environment and the employees are dedicated to constant improvement. As a part of Provisin’s Culture of Care, providing and maintaining a safe, patient-first centered treatment environment is top priority.
Content provided by Samantha Hedrick, Medical Physicist.