Digitising a consultant radiographer led palliative radiotherapy service

Abstract

Keywords: Palliative Radiotherapy; Digitisation; Service Redesign; Audit. Introduction: The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre is a specialist tertiary centre covering the Cheshire and Merseyside region. A Palliative Radiotherapy Service was setup over 3 years ago as a once weekly clinic, led by a Consultant Clinical Oncologist (CCO). With the appointment of a Consultant Radiographer in Palliative Radiotherapy in place of a CCO, the service has expanded to provide greater access to patients requiring palliative radiotherapy. Method and Materials: In order to ensure equitable access to the service, a digitisation project was completed to streamline the referral and recording process. Historically, the services referral form would be received via several routes (fax / e-mail / hand-delivered / dictated). Dependent on the route of entry, this could introduce significant delay in patient management. With the development of a clear pathway for both internal and external referrals, they can now all be managed via a single integrated system which links directly to each patients record, allowing for ‘Live’ update of their notes. Results: Key data is now easily captured, including information such as time from referral to review, and treatment, allowing for on-going audit of the service. This will allow for further adaptations to be made in order to best meet future patient requirements. The digitisation of this clinical pathway not only has the ability to reduce time for referral vetting, but also to reduce the burden on the wider team who have previously been required to scan referral documents to the system, handle faxes from external referral sites, and continually review e-mail for information / feedback on the next steps of referrals. A survey of all service users is currently underway, with formal reporting expected in the coming month. Conclusion and Discussion: The Palliative Radiotherapy Service strengthens and works across traditional organisational boundaries within community, primary, secondary and tertiary care. The digitisation of this service has not only improved efficiency, promoted clearer data recording, and ensured a smoother referral process for professionals; it also aides to showcase the benefit of using specialist allied health professionals in areas where a clinical presence was previously a requirement. Numerical