Quality indicators in radiotherapy.
OBJECTIVE
There is a widespread and increasing tendency to develop hospital performance indicators in the field of accreditation/certification systems and quality benchmarking. A study has been undertaken to develop a set of performance indicators for a typical radiotherapy Centre and to evaluate their ability to provide a continuous quality improvement.


METHODS
A working group consisting of radiation oncologists, medical physicists and radiation technologists under the coordination of experts in health technology assessment has elaborated a set of general indicators able to monitor performances and the quality level of a typical radiotherapy Centre. The work has been carried out through four steps: a preliminary set of indicators was selected; data on these indicators were collected in a number of Italian radiotherapy Centres and medical physics Services; problems in collection and analysis of data were discussed; a final set of indicators was developed.


RESULTS
A final set of 13 indicators is here presented. They concern general structural and/or operational features, health physics activities and accuracy and technical complexity of the treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
The indicators tested in a few Italian Centres of radiotherapy and medical physics Services are now ready to be utilized by a larger community.
Cionini
Luca
L
Dipartimento di Oncologia, Az. Ospedaliera Pisana-Università degli Studi, Pisa, Italy.
Gardani
Gianstefano
G
Gabriele
Pietro
P
Magri
Secondo
S
Morosini
Pier Luigi
PL
Rosi
Antonella
A
Viti
Vincenza
V
D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D017064:Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000592:standards*