2024 RO-ILS Therapist Safety Stars
The theme of the 2024 National Radiologic Technology Week, November 3 - 9, 2024, is "Always on the front line of health care: It's time for us to be seen." RO-ILS has been developing great catch events for the past couple years to bring attention to the important role radiation therapists play in preventing errors from reaching patients. In the 2024 Therapist Great Catch event, an attentive radiation therapist identified a multi-leaf collimator issue that could have resulted in incorrect treatment.
In order to recognize specific radiation therapists for their contributions to patient safety, RO-ILS began soliciting nominations from RO-ILS participants last year. Three 2023 Therapist Safety Stars were celebrated and three new individuals have been selected for national recognition for their efforts in patient safety this year.
Many fantastic therapists were nominated, and all are worthy of acknowledgement in their own right. The following three radiation therapists (listed In alphabetical order) join the rank of 2024 Safety Stars.
 | Alissa Fischer, R.T.(T) |
“Alissa is a great team member and always works to ensure staff and patient safety. She is a great advocate for all parties be it moving patients safely, filing safety reports, coordinating machine maintenance to ensure the machine issues get resolved in a timely manner. She is well organized, concise and operates at a high level of care. She always advocates for calling in another set of eyes, a doctor for feedback, or even vendors if there is an ongoing issue. She works to make sure things run smoothly, efficiently and safely.”
— Megan Dooley, Radiation Therapist
 | Erin Hendrickson |
“Erin has set up a daily huddle for physics, dosimetry and therapist teams to examine safety issues and brainstorm innovative ways to fix and prevent occurrence in the future. She educates her staff on the importance of doing a double check to ensure patients set up is reproducible by having two therapists to review the setup notes at time of simulation and treatment start. Additionally, she has helped improve the detail of setup photos so it clearly shows the immobilization under or around the patient.”
— Sherif Shaaban, MD, MS, Instructor of Radiation Oncology
 | Jason Gregory, RTT |
“Jason advocated for the implementation of RO-ILS to encourage a culture of patient safety. He tirelessly worked years for this to be implemented in our clinic. Upon the approval of the RO-ILS system, we have been able to track and record trends and improvements for patient safety.”
— Shelby Wingold, Radiation Therapist; Medical Dosimetry Intern
