Poster Presentation – Abstracts Archive

UK & Ireland Prostate Brachytherapy Conference 2017

Abstract number 11

Implementation of MDT safety brief within prostate brachytherapy

Farrell R*
*Belfast City Hospital

AIMS/INTRODUCTION: Surgical pauses are conducted as routine practice for all surgical procedures. This process is for all members of the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) to pause, conduct a fi nal check of compliance in patient ID, status and procedure. The pause and check process is familiar to radiographers, ensuring patient ID, treatment technique, dose etc are correct prior to treatment delivery. As a safety initiative, in line with Trust policies and procedures, safety briefs were introduced to the prostate brachytherapy team.

MATERIALS/METHODS: A safety brief template was created to acknowledge patient demographics, diagnosis, scheduled procedure, co-morbidities/ complications, current medications, details of patient positioning and any other relevant information specifi cally relating to the procedure, equipment, planning or treatment. The Brachytherapy Radiographer completes a template for each patient prior to the scheduled list once all members of MDT are present, each patient is discussed, alerting staff to any issues and allowing all staff an opportunity to participate prior to patient entering theatre. Staff attending the safety brief is recorded for audit purposes.

RESULTS: To date 51 patients have been discussed with 44 observations identifi ed e.g. medication required to be stopped, hip or knee co-morbidities impacting on patient positioning in theatre, other co-morbidities/ allergies impacting on specifi c patient management e.g. diabetic patient and fasting for GA. The safety brief takes 10 minutes maximum, depending on patientâЙs numbers and issues to be discussed, has little impact on the overall running time for the prostate brachytherapy list but is ideal for members of the MDT to engage and highlight specifi c patient issues.

CONCLUSION: Feedback from the Prostate Brachytherapy team has been very positive, the safety brief has proven to be of great benefi t, contributing in ensuring patient safety is at the forefront. In light of the successful implementation of the prostate brachytherapy safety briefs, they have now been introduced to other brachytherapy treatment sites.