Quality Improvement Process with Incident Learning Program Helped Reducing Transcriptional Errors on Telecobalt Due to Mismatched Parameters in Different Generations

Abstract

Purpose: Higher frequency of transcriptional errors in the radiotherapy electronic charts for patients on telecobalt was noted. We describe the impact of the quality improvement (QI) initiative under the department's incident learning program (ILP). Materials and Methods: The multidisciplinary quality team under ILP was formed to identify the root cause and introduce methods to reduce (smart goal) the current transcription error rate of 40% to 0.05) with no new additional errors. Conclusions: With various generations of machines and technologies that are not synchronized, the proneness of transcription errors can be very high which can be identified and corrected with a typical QI process under ILP.

Keywords

• incident learning program
• quality improvement
• telecobalt