Medical Error Reduction Program (MERP)

• MERP is a real-time, interactive medical error reduction and compliance software program for radiation oncology
• MERP software is designed to reduce:
  • Preventable systems-related health/medical patient treatment errors
  • Violations of State requirements in QA and radiation safety
• MERP identifies, corrects, documents, and tracks medical errors and regulatory violations (unintended deviations) in the following areas:
  • Clinical patient treatment process
  • Quality assurance
  • Radiation safety
  • Quality management program
  • Regulatory requirements
• MERP complies with all JCAHO 2004 patient safety standards
• MERP generates all documentation and reports necessary for complying with JCAHO documentation requirements and State radiation protection agency reporting requirements
• MERP is HIPAA compliant
• MERP paper-based version available

Technical QA Program

• A comprehensive technical quality assurance, radiation safety, and quality management program designed for providing high quality patient care in radiation oncology
• Ensures accurate and consistent administration of radiation to patients
• Fulfillment of ACR standards for accreditation in the medical physics aspects
• Compliance with all State regulations governing the use of machine produced radiation
• Meets JCAHO accreditation requirements and certain CMS billing regulations
• Training provided for technical staff (14 CEUs of Category A credit approved by ASRT) and non-technical staff
• Includes a QA/compliance recordkeeping system (27 notebooks)
• Optional modules (i.e., IMRT physics QA, dose calculations, treatment chart, accelerator annual calibration, diodes)

Physics Services

• Facility planning and shielding designs
• Radiation surveys and reports
• Assistance with equipment purchase
• Regulatory registrations/licensing
• Acceptance of CT scanner
• CT scanner number calibration
• Acceptance and commissioning of accelerators and equipment (MLC, dynamic wedge, portal imaging, record and verify system, output constancy device, film processor sensitometry, and IMRT film scanner dosimetry)
• Beam data measurements and in-depth notebooks
• Output calibrations and chamber intercomparisons
• Computer treatment planning beam data acceptance (i.e., Varian Eclipse) and modeling (i.e., ADAC Pinnacle³)
• IMRT acceptance/beam data comparison
• IMRT QA implementation and training