2009 Outstanding Achievement Award Recipients
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Contact: Cory Petty |
82 CANCER FACILITIES RECEIVE ACHIEVEMENT
AWARD FROM COMMISSION ON CANCER OF THE
AMERICAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS
CHICAGO—The Commission on Cancer (CoC) of the American College of Surgeons has granted its 2009 Outstanding Achievement Award to a select group of 82 currently accredited and newly accredited cancer programs across the United States.
View the full list of Award Recipients
Established in 2004, the CoC Outstanding Achievement Award (OAA) is designed to recognize cancer programs that strive for excellence in providing quality care to cancer patients. The award is granted to facilities that demonstrate a Commendation level of compliance with six standards that represent five areas of cancer program activity (cancer committee leadership, cancer data management, research, community outreach, and quality improvement). The level of compliance with the six standards is determined during an on-site evaluation by a physician surveyor. In addition, facilities must receive a compliance rating for the remaining 30 cancer program standards. Eighty-two programs received the OAA as a result of surveys performed in 2009. This number represents approximately 18 percent of the 432 programs surveyed during this period. A majority of recipients are community-based facilities; however, teaching hospitals, NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, Pediatric and Network Cancer Programs also received the award.
Established in 1922 by the American College of Surgeons, the Commission on Cancer is a consortium of professional organizations dedicated to improving survival and quality of life for cancer patients through standard-setting, prevention, research, education, and the monitoring of comprehensive quality care. Its membership includes Fellows of the American College of Surgeons and representatives of 47 national organizations that reflect the full spectrum of cancer care.
The CoC’s core functions include setting standards for quality, multidisciplinary cancer patient care; surveying facilities to evaluate compliance with the 36 CoC standards; collecting standardized, high-quality data from accredited facilities; and using the data to develop effective educational interventions to improve cancer care outcomes at the national, state, and local level. There are currently more than 1,400 CoC-accredited cancer programs representing close to 25 percent of all hospitals in the US and Puerto Rico. These CoC-accredited facilities diagnose and/or treat 80 percent of all newly diagnosed cancer patients each year. Receiving care at a CoC-accredited cancer program ensures that a patient will have access to the full quality spectrum of comprehensive cancer care close to home.
In addition, cancer patients’ data are reported by each CoC-accredited cancer program to the CoC’s National Cancer Data Base (NCDB), a joint program with the American Cancer Society (ACS). These data account for approximately two-thirds of all newly diagnosed cancer cases in the US each year, and are used regularly to monitor the quality of patient care delivered in CoC-accredited cancer programs and to improve cancer care outcomes at both the national and local level.
Through an exclusive partnership with the American Cancer Society, the CoC provides the public with information on the resources, services, and cancer treatment experience for each CoC-accredited cancer program. This information is shared with the public on the ACS Web site at www.cancer.org and through the ACS National Cancer Information Center at 1-800-ACS-2345.
For more information about the Commission on Cancer, visit www.facs.org/cancer/index.html.
CoC Outstanding Achievement Award
Online March 26, 2010