| Abstrakt: |
On Treatment Consults (OTCs) were first introduced in our department in March of 2018. As of December 31st, 2023, 1,132 OCTs have been completed. With this information, we are curious if this represents a continued increase in the number of OTCs over time as seen in 2019. Our second question was to determine - if the numbers of OTCs are decreasing or increasing on a monthly basis and how this follows with departmental workload. We plan to survey staff to obtain information on OTC buy in/perceived value, how working from home may have changed workflow and if years of experience has any effect on opening OTCs. We will also determine, based on the OTC electronic task, which staff are conducting OTCs and for what site group. To determine if OTCs have continued to be used, we looked at the number of OTCs completed per month from March 2018 to December 2023. We broke this time frame into 4 buckets based around the timing of the COVID-19 pandemic, the introduction of work from home for all radiation therapy staff, the introduction of vaccines and boosters, and the eventual reduction of work from home. The next steps are to gather information from staff to see why they are using OTCs, which staff are using OTCs (those in the first years of their careers or experienced therapists), and what site group have the most OTCs (i.e. skin vs lung). We plan to ask survey questions to all staff based on multiple choice and short answer. We will also review OTC tasks to determine the level of experience of staff conducting OTCs, and for which site group are the OTCs associated with. And finally, compare the staff survey results to the OTC task information. When we looked at each bucket of time, these buckets of time showed a very consistent use of OTCs each month, seeing on average 15 OTCs per month. With this information in hand, it shows the OTC process has been utilized regardless of the introduction of working from home and the reduction of paperwork time while on site. Having a better sense of which staff are conducting OTCs and which site groups have more OTCs associated with them will help us tailor our education and help guide the need for staff meetings and in-services. Continued usage of OTCs since 2019 highlights a benefit of its usage, with input from staff providing more reasoning on its value. Some potential challenges may be how best to implement our findings. Having the knowledge of what drives the need for an OTC will help our centre better tailor our staff training, build more robust protocols, and get a better sense of where we are struggling in our day-to-day practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
