October 7, 2013 — As a new medical center, Hôpital Riviera's daily radiotherapy patient volume started out small, but now the hospital averages 40 patients per day. The introduction of Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) in many more cases has resulted in a substantial reduction in the time slot — from 15-20 minutes down to 10-15 minutes — which has enabled a 50 percent increase in patients treated per day.
To ensure optimal patient and accessory identification in its busy radiation oncology department, Hôpital Riviera has begun using Elekta's Identify system.
Identify verifies the right patient once the patient enters the treatment room, and its integration with Elekta's Mosaiq Oncology Information System ensures the right accessories are present for each patient's treatment session. Identify is based on advanced radiofrequency identification (RFID) technology, which automates the identification of the patient and accessories and provides independent verification.
"Our main reason for purchasing Identify was enhancing patient security as an error-prevention measure as our volume increased," says Dr. Marc Pachoud, Ph.D., medical physicist, Hopital Riviera. "We had been using a manual checklist system. A bar code system was an option, but that would be too time-consuming for the technicians to do manual scanning. With Identify, patient identification is completely automated — there's nothing required of the technicians. The system checks the patient's identity from an RFID (radio-frequency identification) card and everything that is on the couchtop for the patient's treatment."
Pachoud observed that a key advantage of Identify at Hôpital Riviera is removing a burden from technicians, so they can concentrate on the patient's treatment.
"The technicians are definitely less stressed now," he said. "If you decrease technician stress, I think that improves patient safety…. (Technicians) are much more confident in their patient care responsibilities."
For more information: www.elekta.com
May 03, 2025 
