American College of Radiology (ACR) Radiation Oncology Practice Accreditation: A pattern of change.
OBJECTIVE
The American College of Radiology (ACR) Radiation Oncology Practice Accreditation (ROPA) program has accredited more than 600 sites since 2006, including practices within academic, hospital-based, and freestanding settings. The purpose of this report is to evaluate and compare patterns of change in common deficiencies over time.


METHODS
The ACR database was queried to analyze the common deficiencies noted by the ACR ROPA program between 2012 and 2014. Deficiencies were ranked and compared to the top 10 items that were reported in 2006.


RESULTS
Between 2012 and 2014, 272 new applications and 306 renewals were received. Timely verification of port films, documentation of physician peer review, inclusion of essential elements of a treatment prescription, evidence of a final physicist chart review, documentation of weekly treatment visits, and inclusion of key elements of brachytherapy documentation all improved when compared with 2000-2005. Deficiencies ranked higher on the current review compared with the previous analysis included documentation of a robust quality assurance program, missing elements from the history and physical documentation, and documentation of follow-up visits.


CONCLUSIONS
Our analysis of changes in patterns of deficiencies across radiation oncology practices reflects changes in our field such as the growing reliance on electronic records and imaging. Accreditation continues to play an integral role in establishing national standards and a nonpunitive, peer-reviewed method to evaluate a practice's compliance with national quality guidelines.
Department of Radiation Oncology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA. Electronic address: FoghSE@radonc.ucsf.edu.
Shannon E
SE
Fogh
Department of Radiation Oncology, CARTI, Little Rock, AR.
Christopher H
CH
Pope
Roseville Radiation Oncology, Sutter Medical Group, Roseville, CA.
Seth A
SA
Rosenthal
Department of Radiation Oncology, Gundersen Health, La Crosse, WI.
Patrick D
PD
Conway
Department of Radiation Oncology, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond, VA.
Peter R
PR
Hulick
Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX.
Jennifer L
JL
Johnson
Medical Radiation Physics, Inc., Scottsdale, AZ.
Tariq A
TA
Mian
Department of Radiation Oncology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN.
Indra J
IJ
Das
Division of Oral Epidemiology & Division of Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
Ann
A
Lazar
Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX.
Nikhil G
NG
Thaker
Radiation Oncology Practice Accreditation Program, American College of Radiology, Reston, VA.
Brian T
BT
Monzon
D000068:Accreditation / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D018787:Radiation Oncology / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States