Average time per patient?

Sleeper · Joined: 22 Jan 2008 Posts: 10

I was reading an ad for a therapist postition, and it mentioned a case load of 30 patients a day. In an 8-hour shift that works out to 16 min/patient. Is this typical?

CMD Master · Joined: 04 Feb 2008 Posts: 3

I could not tell you the "typical" volume for cancer centers speaking as a whole but in my experience that closely represents where I work now and have worked before.

Some centers treat 5-10 patients per day per machine while others treat 60 or so with everything in between. Treatment time slots vary from 10 minutes to 20 minutes and even more for complex procedures. There also needs to be time set aside for starting new patients for which films, shifting (if any), marking and tattooing is to be done.

You will get the best idea by visiting prospective centers and observing their flow of patients. Good luck!

radtherapist103 · Joined: 10 May 2009 Posts: 4

it all depends on the treatment technique/type of cancer treated at your clinic

--at my last job, 20 min was needed for all IMRT plans (7 field plus subfields within those 7) equates to 14 total fields..beam on time in itself is 10 minutes plus

--this question is too general..if you're on a machine with only breast patients, you can get two patients in within 10 min! (assuming it's only tangents)