Outcome Measurement – Developing Standardized Advanced Practice Workload Measurement Tools Across the Province with Workload Codes

The Clinical Specialist Radiation Therapist (CSRT) pilot project ran in Ontario from 2007-2016. During the period, individual and summative reports were generated to document the impact of CSRTs in the health care system. As the pilot project concluded and CSRT positions sustained, the CSRT Community of Practice (CoP) group recognized the need to continuously capture workloads of CSRTs across the province to provide data for senior management to assess impact and value of CSRTs in the health system. Therefore, the CSRT CoP created a working group to develop new workload codes to capture advanced practice workload. The workgroup sent out request to all CSRTs in the province to collect all the new codes the CSRT deemed necessary to capture their advanced practice activities. The group then reviewed all the new codes, grouped similar requests and compared to the existing provincial workload codes for duplication and differentiation to generate a master list. The master list is then mapped against the CSRT core competence profile to classify different advanced practice activities into different categories. At the first phase of code development, a list of new codes reflecting the CSRT advanced practice core competency and common to most CSRTs across the province is developed. The new codes will be able to standardize the workload measurement of CSRTs in different cancer centers. The standardized codes also allow provincial leadership to analyze the impact and contribution of CSRTs in the health care system and make informed decisions on future strategic plans. The CSRT CoP developed standardized workload codes to measure advanced practice activities and will obtain approval to use the codes from cancer centers in the province. The CSRT CoP will continue to assess the use of the codes and to refine its completeness. As the CSRT positions evolve and new positions developed, the CoP will adapt and/or introduce new codes as needed.