title: [FMEA applied to the radiotherapy patient care process].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA), is a risk analysis method used at the Radiotherapy Department of Institute Sainte-Catherine as part of a strategy seeking to continuously improve the quality and security of treatments.
  
  
  METHODS
  The method comprises several steps: definition of main processes; for each of them, description for every step of prescription, treatment preparation, treatment application; identification of the possible risks, their consequences, their origins; research of existing safety elements which may avoid these risks; grading of risks to assign a criticality score resulting in a numerical organisation of the risks. Finally, the impact of proposed corrective actions was then estimated by a new grading round.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For each process studied, a detailed map of the risks was obtained, facilitating the identification of priority actions to be undertaken. For example, we obtain five steps in patient treatment planning with an unacceptable level of risk, 62 a level of moderate risk and 31 an acceptable level of risk.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The FMEA method, used in the industrial domain and applied here to health care, is an effective tool for the management of risks in patient care. However, the time and training requirements necessary to implement this method should not be underestimated.
authors.affiliation: Secteur qualité - gestion des risques, institut Sainte-Catherine, Avignon cedex, France. c.meyrieux@isc84.org
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meyrieux
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pourel
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mège
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bodez
mesh_terms: D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D019300:Medical Errors; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D055656:Prescriptions; D017064:Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted; D061106:Radiotherapy Setup Errors; D012306:Risk; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012308:Risk Management / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017211:Treatment Failure