Programme overview
Introduction:
Cancer centre and oncology service line management, covering tumour boards and time to treatment, is a 10-day course for oncology centre, day unit, radiotherapy and registry management teams, ending with an Oncology Service Line Performance and Capacity Plan for a case cancer centre. Cancer centres lose weeks before first treatment when tumour boards lack staging data, chairs and linac slots are booked without demand models and drug spend goes unchecked. Nominees already manage oncology units or pathways and work through case studies on tracking lists and capacity data. CoreConcept Training Center delivers this oncology service line management course.
Course Objectives:
- Map an oncology service line across surgery, systemic anticancer therapy and radiotherapy and profile its baseline volumes, waits and catchment incidence
- Run multidisciplinary tumour boards with terms of reference, case listing criteria, TNM staging capture and recorded treatment decisions
- Track tumour-site cancer pathways against time-to-treatment milestones using a patient tracking list, breach analysis and patient navigation
- Model chemotherapy day unit chair capacity and radiotherapy linac capacity and redesign booking templates to match demand
- Control oncology drug spend through dose banding, biosimilar switching and wastage reduction while governing treatment safety and registry data quality
- Report oncology KPIs and benchmarks and assemble an Oncology Service Line Performance and Capacity Plan for approval
Target Audience:
- Oncology centre leadership teams accountable for cancer service performance, budgets and strategic capacity
- Cancer service line management teams responsible for tumour-site pathways, waiting times and tumour board operations
- Oncology nursing and chemotherapy day unit management teams responsible for chair scheduling and patient flow
- Radiotherapy operations management teams responsible for linac schedules, treatment planning throughput and machine utilisation
- Cancer registry, data and patient navigation management teams responsible for case abstracting, staging records and navigator caseloads
Course Outline:
Day 1: Oncology Service Line Foundations and Cancer Centre Baseline
- Oncology Service Line Model Spanning Surgery, Systemic Therapy and Radiotherapy
- Cancer Centre Operating Structure With Tumour Site Teams
- Catchment Cancer Incidence Profile From Registry Extracts
- Patient Journey Map From Suspicion to First Treatment
- Cancer Centre Baseline Scorecard of Volumes and Waits
Day 2: Tumour Boards, TNM Staging and Cancer Pathway Milestones
- Multidisciplinary Tumour Board Terms of Reference and Quorum Rules
- Tumour Board Case Listing Criteria and Preparation Checklist
- TNM Staging Capture Before Treatment Decision Recording
- Tumour-Site Cancer Pathway With Diagnostic and Treatment Milestones
- Time-to-Treatment Milestones From Referral to First Definitive Treatment
Day 3: Pathway Tracking, Breach Management and Patient Navigation
- Cancer Patient Tracking List With Breach Date Flags
- Weekly Pathway Huddle Using Escalation and Breach Analysis
- Diagnostic Bottleneck Review for Biopsy, Pathology and Staging Scans
- Patient Navigation Model With Navigator Caseload Standards
- Navigation Barrier Log for Transport, Finance and Health Literacy
Day 4: Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy Capacity Data and Registry Records
- Chemotherapy Day Unit Chair Utilisation and Acuity-Based Scheduling
- Regimen Duration Bands for Chair Booking Templates
- Radiotherapy Linac Utilisation and Fractions per Machine Hour
- Hospital Cancer Registry Data Items and Abstracting Workflow
- ICD-O Topography and Morphology Coding Quality Checks
Day 5: Week-One Case Study on a Cancer Centre Access Review
- Case Centre Tumour Board Minutes and Decision Audit
- Case Patient Tracking List Breach Root Cause Review
- Case Chemotherapy Chair Demand and Capacity Gap Model
- Case Navigation Caseload and Barrier Log Analysis
- Week-One Cancer Centre Access Findings Brief Completion
Day 6: Oncology Drug Cost Control and Service Line Economics
- Oncology Drug Spend Analysis by Regimen and Tumour Site
- Dose Banding Tables for High-Cost Systemic Anticancer Therapy
- Biosimilar Switching Plan With Clinician and Patient Communication
- Vial Sharing and Drug Wastage Reduction Tracking
- Service Line Contribution Margin by Tumour Site and Modality
Day 7: Oncology Governance, Treatment Safety and Registry Data Quality
- Systemic Anticancer Therapy Prescribing and Verification Governance
- Radiotherapy Incident Reporting and Learning Review Process
- Thirty-Day Mortality After Chemotherapy Case Review
- Registry Completeness, Timeliness and Duplicate Check Audits
- Staging Completeness Audit Against Tumour Board Records
Day 8: Referral Networks, Clinician Engagement and Change in Cancer Services
- Referrer Engagement Plan for Primary and Secondary Care
- Hub and Spoke Oncology Network Agreements and Protocols
- Tumour Site Lead and Clinician Engagement Charter
- Patient and Family Experience Survey for Cancer Services
- Palliative and Survivorship Referral Interfaces for Oncology Teams
Day 9: Oncology KPIs, Benchmarking and Continuous Improvement
- Oncology Service Line KPI Dictionary and Definitions
- Time-to-Treatment Run Charts and Statistical Process Control
- Chair and Linac Capacity Benchmarking Across Peer Centres
- Registry-Based Survival and Stage-at-Diagnosis Reporting
- Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycles for Cancer Access Improvement
Day 10: Capstone Case Study on the Oncology Service Line Plan
- Capstone Cancer Centre Data Pack and Gap Prioritisation
- Capstone Tumour Board and Pathway Redesign Proposal
- Capstone Chair, Linac and Navigation Capacity Scenario
- Capstone Oncology Drug Savings and Service Line Budget
- Oncology Service Line Performance and Capacity Plan Completion
Skills You Will Gain:
- Tumour Board Operations
- Cancer Pathway Tracking
- Chemotherapy Chair Capacity Modelling
- Linac Utilisation Analysis
- Oncology Drug Cost Containment
- Cancer Registry Data Quality
- Patient Navigation Management
- Oncology Performance Benchmarking
Why Attend This Course:
- Deliver an Oncology Service Line Performance and Capacity Plan to the cancer centre director and the hospital executive committee for approval
- Decide which tumour-site pathways, chair sessions and linac hours to prioritise when time-to-treatment breaches start to rise
- Avoid treatment delays, idle chairs and machines, and avoidable drug wastage that inflate cost per patient treated
- Brief tumour board coordinators, navigators, day unit nurses and registry staff on tracking, booking and data capture routines
Conclusion:
Back at work, the participant presents the Oncology Service Line Performance and Capacity Plan to the cancer centre director, tumour site leads and the hospital executive committee. They use it to approve tumour board rules, pathway milestones, chair and linac session changes, navigator posts and drug savings targets, while service line managers track its KPI dictionary at weekly pathway huddles. After the first quarter, the centre should compare time to treatment, breach counts, chair and linac utilisation, drug spend and registry staging completeness against the baseline scorecard.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):
What should participants know before the cancer centre and oncology service line management course?
Participants should already manage an oncology unit, cancer pathway, day unit, radiotherapy schedule or registry team. No clinical treatment is taught. Bringing an anonymised tracking list, tumour board schedule, chair booking report or registry extract helps them apply the case studies to their own centre.
How does cancer centre and oncology service line management differ from a general clinical pathways or hospital department course?
It manages cancer care as one service line across tumour boards, systemic therapy, radiotherapy, registry and navigation. General pathway courses teach pathway design for any condition, and department courses run a single unit; both topics appear here only where they affect oncology access.
Why do time-to-treatment targets matter in oncology service line management?
Delays between referral, diagnosis and first treatment can allow disease to progress and raise anxiety for patients. Tracking each milestone on a patient tracking list shows where diagnostics, tumour boards or treatment capacity hold patients back and which fix will recover the pathway.
What do participants take back from the cancer centre and oncology service line management course?
Participants take back an Oncology Service Line Performance and Capacity Plan with tumour board rules, pathway milestones, a chair and linac capacity scenario, drug savings measures, navigation caseloads and a KPI dictionary they can adapt to their own cancer centre.