• Luca Cionini, Gianstefano Gardani, Pietro Gabriele, Secondo Magri, Pier Luigi Morosini, Antonella Rosi, Vincenza Viti, and Italian Working Group General Indicators.
• Dipartimento di Oncologia, Az. Ospedaliera Pisana-Università degli Studi, Pisa, Italy.
• Radiother Oncol. 2007 Feb 1; 82 (2): 191-200.

Background And PurposeThere is a widespread and increasing tendency to develop hospital performance indicators in the field of accreditation/certification systems and quality benchmarking. A study has been undertaken to develop a set of performance indicators for a typical radiotherapy Centre and to evaluate their ability to provide a continuous quality improvement.Materials And MethodsA working group consisting of radiation oncologists, medical physicists and radiation technologists under the coordination of experts in health technology assessment has elaborated a set of general indicators able to monitor performances and the quality level of a typical radiotherapy Centre. The work has been carried out through four steps: a preliminary set of indicators was selected; data on these indicators were collected in a number of Italian radiotherapy Centres and medical physics Services; problems in collection and analysis of data were discussed; a final set of indicators was developed.ResultsA final set of 13 indicators is here presented. They concern general structural and/or operational features, health physics activities and accuracy and technical complexity of the treatment.ConclusionsThe indicators tested in a few Italian Centres of radiotherapy and medical physics Services are now ready to be utilized by a larger community.

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