3.1 Radiation Oncology Department- General organization
Eighteen Radiation Oncologists, 15 Radiation Oncology Residents, 11 Medical Physicists, 25 Radiation Therapists and 6 Nurses are currently working at our Department. On average, the number of outpatient treatments is approximatively 900 per week. In this time of emergency, and given the role of oncological hub, our efforts were directed towards maintaining an efficient clinical routine.
For this reason, the entire workflow was re-organized to minimize COVID-19 transmission among both the personnel and the patients. All measures were coordinated by a COVID-19 emergency team composed by the Chief of the Department, three Senior Radiation Oncologists, the Radiation Therapists Coordinator, the Nursing Coordinator and the Chief of the Medical Physics Unit, in compliance with the Institutional Recommendations.
The healthcare personnel was assigned a COVID-19 exposure risk class. Personal protective equipment (PPE) was provided accordingly: 1) low-risk of COVID-19 exposure (surgical mask, disposable gloves), 2) intermediate risk of COVID-19 exposure (surgical masks, disposable gloves, disposable gowns, medical caps) and 3) high risk of COVID-19 exposure (filtering facepieces- FFP2/KN95 and FFP3 masks, disposable gloves, disposable gowns, medical caps, goggles or face shield, aprons). The administrative staff and the medical physicists were assigned to the first group, the healthcare professionals (namely, physicians, Radiation Therapists and Nurses) without contacts with HNC patients to the second group, and the healthcare professionals with contacts with HNC patients to the third group. All staff members were required to use PPE for the whole working day, regardless of whether their activity encompassed any direct contact with patients.
A full list of the policies for the whole department is provided inSupplementary Materials .