From the March 2017 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Define your patient base
Let’s assume that the clinical program research confirms the need to add proton therapy to the treatment options. Next, we’ll need to know what is the population or catchment area from which you’ll be drawing patients? Here it’s important to know that the population area for proton therapy treatment is not a mirror of current patient volumes. Unlike most medical services, proton therapy centers are still in limited supply. The catchment area may be influenced by existence, or planned existence, of other centers in the region.
The calculation of how many patients per year will be treated in the facility is essential information, and should include a careful study of the organization’s current clinical program (base of potential patients) and information gathered from across the defined geography. The catchment, or population, study should also identify the case mix.
What tumor types — specialization or niche — do the decision-makers envision being treated in the center and what is the breakdown?
For example, 10 percent pediatric, 20 percent prostate, 30 percent brain, etc. Basic answers to these questions will help determine the size and number of treatment rooms required for a specific center being envisioned.
What do the doctors want?
The human factor must also be addressed early in the business planning process. Alongside defining the client/owner’s clinical program and catchment area, the planning and design team must have a clear understanding of how the doctors prepare and treat their patients. There is a misconception that all particle therapy centers are the same and that design and construction default to a cookie-cutter approach. While extremely sophisticated, the PT treatment areas constitute only about 40 percent of the building footprint. The remaining 60 percent of the center is comprised of clinical space. The process and preferences of the center’s physicians are important to document and reflect in the design.
A design team must determine how patients flow most effectively through the space to maximize beam time while accommodating a doctor’s preference. All of this is considered in the context of optimizing the patient experience. For example, do the physicians prefer to pre-position their patients outside of the treatment room? Or within the treatment room? Consider how answers here directly impact the clinic design (more or fewer prepositioning rooms) and number of treatment rooms (positioning within the room impacts the number of people who can be treated).
