Errors in radiation therapy
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Pennsylvania patient safety advisory
- Contributor(s):
- Pennsylvania. Patient Safety Authority. ECRI (Organization) Institute for Safe Medication Practices.
- Publication:
- [Harrisburg, Pa.] : Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, c2009
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Medical Errors -- prevention & control Radiation Injuries -- prevention & control Radiotherapy -- adverse effects Radiotherapy -- methods Communication Cooperative Behavior Government Regulation Radiation Oncology -- methods Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted -- methods Radiotherapy Dosage Radiotherapy, Computer-Assisted -- methods Risk Management -- methods Humans United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Radiation therapy is a highly regulated medical practice with historically low error and injury rates. Rare instances of radiation therapy errors resulting in severe injuries have been documented. These errors can result in devastating and sometimes fatal injuries, especially when the misadministration results in injury to vital organs or structures, such as the spinal cord, heart, lungs, or brain. Delivering radiation therapy is a team effort requiring collaboration and clear communication between the radiation oncologist, medical physicist, dosimetrist, and radiation therapist/technologist. As technology advances and computers are routinely used to plan, verify, and deliver radiation therapy, an information technologist may also be included on the team. Preventing errors in the delivery of radiation therapy involves not only understanding and appropriately utilizing new advances in technology, but also utilizing established patient safety procedures that optimize safe healthcare delivery.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-DC license. (More information)
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101561978 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101561978