title: An approach to radiation safety department benchmarking in academic and medical facilities.
abstract: Based on anecdotal evidence and networking with colleagues at other facilities, it has become evident that some radiation safety departments are not adequately staffed and radiation safety professionals need to increase their staffing levels. Discussions with management regarding radiation safety department staffing often lead to similar conclusions. Management acknowledges the Radiation Safety Officer (RSO) or Director of Radiation Safety's concern but asks the RSO to provide benchmarking and justification for additional full-time equivalents (FTEs). The RSO must determine a method to benchmark and justify additional staffing needs while struggling to maintain a safe and compliant radiation safety program. Benchmarking and justification are extremely important tools that are commonly used to demonstrate the need for increased staffing in other disciplines and are tools that can be used by radiation safety professionals. Parameters that most RSOs would expect to be positive predictors of radiation safety staff size generally are and can be emphasized in benchmarking and justification report summaries. Facilities with large radiation safety departments tend to have large numbers of authorized users, be broad-scope programs, be subject to increased controls regulations, have large clinical operations, have significant numbers of academic radiation-producing machines, and have laser safety responsibilities.
authors.affiliation: *Radiation Safety Department, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Elm & Carlton Streets, Buffalo, NY 14263.
authors.forename: Richard P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Harvey
mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking; D006268:Health Facilities / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D011835:Radiation Protection / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D017751:Safety Management / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration*; D000078329:Workforce