Imaging Technology News 9/08

> > special report Race Against Cancer continued from page 27 have become involved,” she said. “Initially, we were conservative when forecasting our volume. We have been pleased with the referral pattern for this service, and realized an 80 percent increase from initial conservative projections.” The facility also recorded a 7 percent increase in IMRT volume. Such breadth and depth of service, motivation and tenacity and dedication to patients as true customers inspired Outpatient Care Technology magazine to bestow its 2008 Outpatient Excellence Award for Oncology Centers on BCCC ROC. Leading on the technology edge To carry out its vision of operating as a center of clinical excellence, BCCC ROC requires leading-edge technology, according to McGraner. “We are committed to providing the best patient care with the best technology,” she said. “Our technology provides us with the most efficient method to treat our patients, and do so in a safe, accurate and productive manner.” The multimillion-dollar investment in capital equipment and technology, bolstered by increased patient volume from existing and new services, seems to be a rewarding financial risk – not only for the patients but also for the facility itself. Return on investment for the new technology installed just last year is approximately 26 months, McGraner calculated. That includes a brachytherapy suite, IGRT and EMR. “To this end technology is a key driver, and one that we strive to keep up with in this day,” she added. Outside View of BCCC BCCC ROC by the numbers Administrator: Karen McGraner, director Web site: www.bmhcc.org/facilities/memphis/services/cancer/ Clinical Staff: 3.0 FTE Physicians 3.0 FTE radiation oncologists 2.0 FTE physicists 1.0 FTE dosimetrists (1 vacant position) 1.0 FTE lead radiation therapist 9.8 FTE radiation therapists 2.0 FTE clinical/nursing staff (e.g., nurses, physician assistants) 2.0 FTE clerical support (e.g., secretarial, reception) BCCC works with sister hospitals to provide services to patients by sharing a medical physicist, dosimetrist and therapists. Medical oncologists are in private practice; radiologists are contracted by the hospital. Administrator/Business Operations staff (e.g., finance, HR, IT) Office staff performs direct admissions of our patients. Hospital’s admission team works to pre-certify patients. Hospital documentation review and business office teams work with facility. BCCC works with corporate IS/IT project teams for ongoing support of programs and with hospital IS/IT team for ongoing support of hardware and its functionality. Scope of Services: • External beam radiotherapy (IMRT, IGRT) • Stereotactic radiosurgery and radiotherapy • HDR and LDR brachytherapy • Clinical research • Genetics program • Stem cell transplant program • Cancer navigators • Comprehensive breast center (including FFDM) • Inpatient hospice • Palliative care Annual Volumes: 787 patients treated 13,669 annual treatments (accelerator) 729 annual treatments (HDR) Source: BCCC, July 2008 McGraner admitted that they didn’t start out planning for such an extensive technology acquisition spread. Back in 2006, they began strategic planning to replace an older accelerator so they could offer IGRT and SRS/SRT. “Although our clinical and support teams looked at several vendors’ equipment, it became clear to us that the addition of a Trilogy [by Varian Medical Systems] would not only allow us to have an accelerator that would support our goals [and] objectives, but would also allow us to beam-match the machine to allow flexibility of transfer of patients between our equipment as the need arose,” she said. “We also felt that an added benefit was that the Trilogy would allow us the flexibility to use the machine as ‘simple’ as we needed to, or as ‘complex’ as we needed to.” The decision to add the Trilogy fueled a succession of others with a goal to improve efficiencies and processes with new equipment and new functionality. What began with a need to replace an older accelerator led to building a new brachytherapy suite, remodeling a treatment room and installing a Trilogy. Evaluating an EMR system emerged next on the list. “Limitations existed with kV matching and transfer of the cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) with our existing EMR, although it had served us quite well since 1993,” McGraner noted. “We then evaluated our existing EMR and ARIA in order to choose the software that would provide optimal long-term clinical and documentation needs. We also then evaluated the Eclipse [treatment planning system]. We choose to move to a single vendor and integrated environment as it became evident that we would benefit from not only quality but also inherent operational efficiencies. We removed import and export of critical data used in the planning and treatment of our patients across the multi-vendor environment. “We were committed to provide quality, safety and accuracy,” she continued. “By removing redundancies, manual entries, import/export of key elements within our systems for planning soon became evident and allowed us to achieve those goals. The technical staff was thrilled to see Physics and dosimetry team (left to right): Glenn Cobb, CMD, Kevin Bronson, M.Sc. the ease with which patients could medical physicist, Albert Fung, Ph.D., chief move between treatment units. The radiation physicist beams were matched and further data entry was no longer required. We also work with other hospitals within our organization to move critical patient information between systems.” Before 2006, BCCC ROC operated three accelerators, and two of them were not equipped with updated technology, including multileaf collimator (MLC), portal vision (PV) dosimetry and IGRT capabilities. “We looked at multiple vendors and Office team (left to right): Reba Bennett, their equipment could have provided office coordinator, Wanda Clayborn, radius with other alternatives, but it was ation oncology clerk, Shirley Davis, secretary important to us to make a sound, costRace Against Cancer continued on page 30 September 2008 > special report > 29 http://new.reillycomm.com/imaging/special-report-b.php http://www.bmhcc.org/facilities/memphis/services/cancer/

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Imaging Technology News 9/08

Imaging Technology News 9/08 Contents IGRT How IGRT Targets the Prostate ASTRO Oncology Information Management Systems (OIMS) Imaging Leading the Intense Race Against Cancer SBRT - The New Treatment of Choice Top IMRT/IGRT Centers to Watch Molecular Imaging: Ready for the Limelight CR or DR in the ER? Have You Hit the Glass Ceiling?

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