Impact of technological and departmental changes on incident rates in radiation oncology over a seventeen-year period.

Introduction: Advancements in technology and processes are designed to bring improvement. However, this is often achieved in parallel with increases in complexity, simultaneously presenting opportunities for new types of errors. This study aims to contextualise the impact of internal departmental changes upon radiation incidents and near misses recorded.

Methods: A timeline of events and a comprehensive incident categorisation system were applied to all radiation incidents and near misses recorded at the Princess Alexandra Hospital Radiation Oncology department from 2003 to 2019, inclusive. Descriptive statistics were performed to identify the type and number of incidents reported during the time period in relation to potential changes within the department, with a focus on the implementation of an electronic environment.

Results: Over the seventeen-year period, 157 incidents and 76 near misses were reported. The majority of incidents were classified as 'procedural' (78%), with 'treatment' being both the highest point of error and point of detection (49% and 85%, respectively). The largest number of incidents and near misses were reported in 2018 (n = 39) which was also a year that experienced the largest number of departmental changes (n = 16), including the move to a completely electronic planning process.

Conclusions: Changes within the department were followed by an increasing number of reported incidents. Proactive measures should be undertaken prior to the implementation of major changes within the department to aid in the minimisation of incident occurrence.