title: Evaluation of time, attendance of medical staff, and resources during radiotherapy for breast cancer patients. The DEGRO-QUIRO trial.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To conform to recommendations regarding the treatment of breast cancer, an estimation of costs and personnel to assure treatment is required. To date no recommendations based on real time measurements are available. The DEGRO (German Society of Radiation Oncology), therefore, initiated a prospective multicenter evaluation of core procedures of radiotherapy. In this analysis, the results regarding human resources and room occupation during the treatment of breast cancer are presented.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three academic radiation oncology centers (Erlangen, Münster, Mannheim) prospectively documented their workflow and working time for all breast cancer patients from July-October 2008. Subsequently, a statistical analysis was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The longest working time of physicians was the definition of the target volume and organs at risk (mean 33 min). Furthermore, physicians needed much time for general tasks, which included conversations. Physicists needed the most time for treatment planning and authorization (64 min), whereas technicians were mostly needed in day-to-day radiotherapy treatment (15 min, 31 min including verification). Despite significant differences in specific steps between centers, overall working times and room occupation were comparable and representative. Special procedures (intraoperative radiotherapy/multicatheter brachytherapy) required considerable amounts of additional working time of physicians and physicists.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this prospective analysis, data of human resources and room occupation during treatment of breast cancer are presented for the first time. Each patient consumes about 12 h of human resources for treatment and 3.75 h for general tasks (physicians 4.7 h, physicists 1.8 h, and technicians 9.2 h).
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, University Medical Center Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Theodor-Kutzer-Ufer 1-3, Mannheim, Germany. elena.blank@umm.de
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Blank
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Willich
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fietkau
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Popp
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schaller-Steiner
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sack
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wenz
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D040841:Resource Allocation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013996:Time and Motion Studies; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*