NAC449.377. Radiological therapeutic services.

     1. If a hospital provides radiological therapeutic services, the services must meet professionally nationally recognized standards for safety and personnel qualifications.

     2. A radiological therapeutic department must be under the direction of a physician who is:

     (a) Certified or eligible for certification in therapeutic radiology by the American Board of Radiology; or

     (b) Certified or eligible for certification in radiology by the American Board of Radiology and has 2 years of full-time experience in radiation therapy.

     3. Other personnel who may provide radiological therapeutic services, on a full-time, part-time or consultative basis, depending on the activity of the department, include:

     (a) A radiological physicist who is certified in radiological physics or in therapeutic radiological physics by the American Board of Radiology;

     (b) A dosimetrist, or treatment plan technologist, who is a qualified and experienced radiation therapy technologist and who has at least 1 year of additional clinical training in dosimetry;

     (c) A certified therapeutic radiological technologist; and

     (d) Appropriate support personnel, including licensed nurses, as required by the patient load.

     4. Written policies and procedures must be developed and maintained by the director of the department in consultation with other appropriate health professional persons and the administration of the hospital.

     5. Radiation therapy must be given only under the direction of a radiation therapist.

     6. All cancer patients accepted for curative radiation must have adequate histological substantiation of diagnosis, unless convincing alternative evidence for diagnosis is presented.

     7. Documentation of the initial evaluation and treatment plan of each patient, and dosimetry, clinical, technical and follow-up notes on each patient, must be maintained.

     8. Adequate communication must be maintained between the department and the referring physicians, including periodic review of case management, complications and treatment results.

     9. Calibration and operation of equipment for radiation therapy must meet the requirements specified in chapter 459 of NAC.

     10. Radiation protection for patients and staff must comply with the requirements specified in chapter 459 of NAC.

     11. Periodic follow-ups of a patient following the completion of his or her treatment must be coordinated with the physician who referred the patient.

     12. Equipment and supplies for the radiological therapeutic services must conform to the requirements specified in chapter 459 of NAC.

     13. The rooms in which radiation therapy machines are used must be of adequate size to permit the easy use of the machines by patients on stretchers. Shielding of those rooms must meet the requirements specified in chapter 459 of NAC.

     14. Sufficient examination rooms must be available to accommodate all patients receiving the therapeutic services.

     (Added to NAC by Bd. of Health by R050-99, eff. 9-27-99)