Poster Presentations Archive

UK & Ireland Prostate Brachytherapy Conference 2022

Abstract number 7

Paperless process of a Low Dose Rate Brachytherapy Department 

Farrell R, Esteve S, Andrews G, McAteer C, Byrne M, O’Hara B 
Northern Ireland Cancer Centre, Belfast 

PURPOSE: The Radiotherapy Department of the Belfast Trust moved to a paperless system in 2021. The Brachytherapy Team designed a workflow with Aria OIS (Varian) and Variseed Treatment Planning System (Varian) for a pre-plan technique of permanent brachytherapy implants. 

METHODS: During 2020 and 2021, regular meetings were held between the Paperless implementation team and Varian Clinical Solutions specialist to evaluate the old process and documents. Then, the Clinical Team decided the best strategy to replace the workflow with user groups, care paths, tasks, encounters, prescription templates, dynamic documents and questionnaires. Lag times were set for every task to display when actions were expected to be due. A new version of the Employers Procedures was issued to reflect both workflows and the signature requirements to approve treatments electronically. The Radiotherapy Quality System was also updated. Prior to the implementation, training sessions for “Superusers” via Microsoft Teams were held for awareness and changes of the new workflow. This information was then disseminated through the team. First patients were treated through both paper-based and paperless systems until the Team was confident to move to a full paperless path. 

RESULTS: The whole patient care path was created on Aria OIS with patient appointments and tasks. The Encounters Workspace was used to display actions, documents and questionnaires that replaced the old paper forms. Some of the tasks that were adapted are: referral, patient phone calls, planning process, seed calibration, tasks on implant day, CT appointment, CT dosimetry, post-treatment checks and follow-up at the end of the care path. 

CONCLUSION: The paperless system optimized the workflow and minimized manual transcription errors. It was also an opportunity to review the process.