Analyzing changes in radiotherapy treatment planning error reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has affected medical physics and radiation oncology departments and the delivery of radiation therapy. Among the changes implemented in response to the onset of the pandemic was a shift to remote treatment planning by health care institutions. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the overall frequency of errors changed after the implementation of remote radiation therapy treatment planning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reported incidents were obtained from an incident reporting database operated by a multisite cancer care facility in the Northeast. Researchers compared the frequency of reported events in a period prior to the start of the pandemic (March 2019 to February 2020) with a period after the onset of the pandemic (March 2020 to February 2021). No significant increase in reported incidents was detected suggesting the efficiency and safety of remote radiotherapy treatment planning.

Keywords: COVID-19; Error reporting; Incident reporting; Remote treatment planning.