Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Cancer programs at Grosse Pointe, Royal Oak and Troy recognized for excellence
The Commission on Cancer, or CoC, of the American College of Surgeons recently recognized the cancer programs at Beaumont hospitals in Grosse Pointe, Royal Oak and Troy as Outstanding Achievement Award recipients.
“The Outstanding Achievement Award acknowledges cancer programs that achieve excellence in providing quality care to cancer patients. We’re honored to be among this select group,” said Thomas Lanni, vice president, Oncology, Medicine and Imaging, Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak. No other Michigan hospital surveyed the first half of the year has received such recognition.
After an April survey, all three hospitals earned reaccreditation as Integrated Network Cancer Programs with seven commendations from the CoC.
To earn voluntary CoC accreditation, a cancer program must meet or exceed 34 CoC quality care standards, be evaluated every three years through a survey process and maintain levels of excellence in the delivery of comprehensive, patient-centered care. Three-year accreditation with gold-level commendation is only awarded to a facility that exceeds standard requirements at the time of its survey.
“You are part of an elite group of only 15 award-winning, cancer care programs across the United States that achieved this status after being surveyed between Jan. 1 through June 30, 2016. There are approximately 1,500 CoC accredited cancer programs nationwide, representing 30 percent of all hospitals,” a recent congratulatory letter from the leadership of the American Cancer Society stated. “CoC accredited facilities diagnose and/or treat more than 70 percent of all newly diagnosed cancer patients each year. Your cancer program represents the best of the best in cancer care.”
The CoC Accreditation program provides the framework for Beaumont Health’s cancer program. It improves the quality of patient care through various cancer-related programs that focus on the full spectrum of cancer care, including:
- prevention
- early diagnosis
- cancer staging
- optimal treatment
- rehabilitation
- life-long follow up
- end-of-life care
“When patients receive care at a CoC facility, they also have access to information on clinical trials and new treatments,” explained Lanni. “They have the benefit of genetic counseling and patient-centered services, including psycho-social support, a patient navigation process and a survivorship care plan.”
CoC-accredited cancer programs offer patients:
- quality care close to home
- comprehensive care
- a multidisciplinary, team approach
- information and education
- patient-centered services
- options for genetic assessment and counseling, and palliative care services
- care monitoring and quality improvement
- treatment planning based on evidence-based national treatment guidelines
- clinical trials and new treatment options
- follow-up care including a survivorship care plan
- patient tracking through the cancer data system
Like all CoC-accredited facilities, Beaumont’s cancer program maintains a registry and contributes data to the National Cancer Data Base, a joint program of the CoC and American Cancer Society. This nationwide oncology outcomes database is the largest clinical disease registry in the world. Data on all types of cancer are tracked and analyzed through the NCDB and used to explore trends in cancer care.
Along with the three Beaumont hospitals recently surveyed – Grosse Pointe, Royal Oak and Troy – the cancer programs at Beaumont, Dearborn and Farmington Hills have also earned CoC accreditation.
Established in 1922 by the American College of Surgeons, the CoC is a consortium of professional organizations dedicated to improving patient outcomes 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. For more information, visit www.facs.org/cancer.
About Beaumont’s Cancer Program
Beaumont’s comprehensive cancer program combines the expertise of surgical, medical and radiation oncologists to offer cancer prevention counseling, diagnosis and treatment in hospital and community-based settings. The Beaumont Cancer Institute is one of only 34 community sites in the U.S. to be awarded a five-year National Cancer Institute Community Oncology Research Program grant. Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak is designated as a Blue Cross Center of Distinction for the Treatment of Rare and Complex Cancers.