Reducing radiation oncology time to treatment for definitive cancers.

Abstract

84 Background: Time to first treatment intervention has been associated with improved patient outcomes. Although, radiation therapy is not always the first treatment intervention, a reduced time to treatment for radiation therapy patients reduces the anxiety and worry of the patient and their family. At the Cleveland Clinic, TTT is considered an important metric that is reviewed by our Cancer Committee and is considered within our tumor boards as well as our multi-disciplinary clinics. Methods: A value stream mapping exercise starting at the time of diagnosis and ending at the first scheduled treatment date allowed us to understand where our opportunities were to improve our TTT. Analytics and reporting was developed to track and report objective data that was incorporated into our operational huddles. Process improvements were implemented to improve clinical template access for our physicians, we eliminated the sequential nature of insurance authorization after consult and created reporting tools that our teams could monitor our success. Results: We improved our median time of consult to first treatment by 29% . Driving our consults to treatment times down a full 4 days on average. We have sustained this improvement with team based visual management boards, team huddles and incorporating TTT into our culture. Conclusions: Radiation therapy time to treat was reduced with the use of continuous improvement tools, analytics, and team based huddles.