By Thomas J. Petrone

With hospitals facing tighter budgets than ever before, every budget line is being scrutinized. While it’s tempting to settle for the minimum needs, that approach can cost more than it saves when it comes to medical physics.

Historically, many healthcare facilities would hire a medical physicist by price shopping because the bar was set low regarding the work that was needed. Basically, if a facility passed its inspections, the hire was doing his or her job. However, as rules and regulations grew along with accreditation standards over the years, the need for medical physicists to bring more value to the table also increased. Today, the work those professionals do can increase patient and employee safety, as well as medical outcomes, by optimizing the performance of diagnostic and radiation therapy equipment. And it can also be of financial benefit by helping to reduce equipment downtime and even reduce liability exposure.

With that said, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there’s not a “one size fits all” when it comes to a medical physicist. In fact, there is a range of service options available, which means many sizes could actually work well together. So in order to ensure your facility is not overspending or underperforming when it comes to this critical role, it’s recommended that you create or track down a “medical physics program checklist”.

Locate or create
Although a number of good checklists and resources for checklists already exist (the National Health Physics Program is a good example) there are some drawbacks to using someone else’s pre-existing checklist. First, it can be a real challenge to find checklists that address all modalities. Complicating matters further, unless the checklists are specific for the state the facility is located in, they might neglect addressing state requirements which can vary widely. This can lead to an incomplete list of needs which, in turn, can mean the medical physicist or group brought on won’t be the right fit.

Instead, a modified approach may be the best choice. An existing checklist should be found if possible to at least serve as a reference or jumping-off point that can be modified to develop a personalized checklist for a facility’s unique needs.

Evaluation and intellectual pursuits
There are two components that should appear on any medical physics program checklist: evaluation of equipment and intellectual pursuits. By getting into the details of those duties, it’s possible to roughly estimate the amount of time that will need to be allocated for the medical physics work, which will help in budget planning and in determining the makeup of a team. It’s recommended that evaluation of equipment come first because it’s easier to figure out the return on investment, which helps to justify the expense. The ROI is created through reduction of downtime, improving the patient experience (which can help with reimbursement and in building patient loyalty) and extending the life of equipment, and of course, the avoidance of noncompliance with myriad regulations and accreditation standards. It also creates the foundation for the base level of experience a team will need.

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