Patient Safety Organization Cautions About Unintended Radiation Therapy

December 3, 2010 – A new patient safety E-Lert from the ECRI Institute Patient Safety Organization (PSO) highlights radiation therapy to an unintended site. The safety information comes after several reports submitted by participating heathcare providers.

The ECRI Institute PSO received two reports submitted between September and November 2009 involving delivery of radiation therapy to unintended body regions. This topic is also covered in “Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2011,” published in the November edition of the institute’s Health Devices journal.

“One of the most important ways to prevent healthcare events from happening is to learn about problems that have occurred in other organizations and to use that information to prevent similar incidents elsewhere,” said Karen P. Zimmer, M.D., MPH, FAAP, clinical director, ECRI Institute PSO. “The Patient Safety E-lerts bring attention to these issues and are concisely formatted to stimulate discussion and action by interdisciplinary committees focused on reducing the risk of healthcare events.”

The information is available to the healthcare community as a free download.

For more information: www.ecri.org/pso