UCI Radiation Oncology is committed to the development of continuous quality improvement as evident by the numerous committees and initiatives devoted to this task. Our overarching goal of patient safety is at the heart of everything we do. Some highlights of our quality and safety program are as follows:
- Executive quality council that meets monthly to review safety guidelines, policies and procedures, and feedback provided by patients, faculty, and staff.
- Customized, UCI Radiation Oncology-based near-miss and mistake-reporting database to systematically review operations and make improvements. Additionally, the Department utilizes the Safety and Quality Information System at UCI as supervised by the Chief Medical Officer.
- Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Departmental Conferences is held regularly to discuss side effects from treatment and any outcomes that were not intended.
- Weekly prospective peer review conference attended by physicians, physicists, and dosimetrists is held to ensure that all patients who start radiation have multiple reviews of the treatment plan.
- Dedicated physics team that works to ensure technical quality. Our world-class group of physics takes pride in doing much of the “behind the scenes” work with machine calibration, dose verification, and quality assurance.
- "Deep Dive" case reviews are conducted in addition to Morning Report Conferences which analyze details of treatment delivery and decision-making.
- Journal clubs of newly published articles focused on quality and safety occur on a monthly basis. These are designed to foster discussion and to create an environment of inquiry with respect to how quality and safety can be improved.
- A “Patient Experience” conference that occurs at the of each month to review patient comments, suggestions, and feedback, specifically for the purpose of improving the experience for all those who are treated at UCI.
- There are a number of Quality and Safety projects spearheaded by faculty and residents with direct patient care applications. For instance, one project is attempting to improve access to palliative care physicians for patients who are considering hospice; another is aiming to assess opinions on use of complementary and alternative medicine; one project evaluates hurdles to coordination of care for patients requiring concurrent chemotherapy; a more recent project is studying wait times for inpatients in need of transportation services.
