Cancer program celebrates 25 years of CoC accreditation
The Commission on Cancer (CoC), a quality program of the American College of Surgeons (ACS), has granted three-year accreditation to the cancer program at King’s Daughters Medical Center in Ashland, Ky.
King’s Daughters cancer program has been continuously accredited by the CoC for 25 years, first earning accreditation in 1993.
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.
To earn voluntary CoC accreditation, a cancer program must meet 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.
As a CoC-accredited cancer center, King’s Daughters takes a collaborative approach, treating cancer as a complex group of diseases. Members of the cancer team include surgeons, medical and radiation oncologists, diagnostic radiologists, pathologists, nurse practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, pastoral care, dietitians, patient navigators, physical therapists, and administrative personnel, along with community-based services including the American Cancer Society and Community Hospice.
These collaborative partnerships, all working together, result in improved patient care.
“This accreditation is a testament to the dedication and hard work that every member of the cancer team puts forth on the behalf our patients on a daily basis,” said David Goebel, M.D., hematologist/oncologist KDMS-Tri-State Hematology/Oncology. “Accreditation by the Commission on Cancer demonstrates King’s Daughters commitment to providing the highest-quality, and most effective up-to-date cancer care to our community.”
The CoC Accreditation Program provides the framework for King’s Daughters to improve its 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 for recurrent disease, and end-of-life care.
When patients receive care at a CoC facility, they also have access to information on clinical trials and new treatments, genetic counseling, and patient centered services including psycho-social support, a patient navigation process, and a survivorship care plan that documents the care each patient received and seeks to improve cancer survivors’ quality of life.
Like all CoC-accredited facilities, King’s Daughters maintains a cancer registry and contributes data to the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB), 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. CoC-accredited cancer centers, in turn, have access to information derived from this type of data analysis, which is used to create national, regional, and state benchmark reports. These reports help CoC facilities with their quality improvement efforts.
The American Cancer Society estimates that more than 1.7 million cases of cancer will be diagnosed in 2018. There are currently more than 1,500 CoC-accredited cancer programs in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, CoC-accredited facilities diagnose and/or treat more than 70 percent of all newly diagnosed patients with cancer. When cancer patients choose to seek care locally at a CoC-accredited cancer center, they are gaining access to comprehensive, state-of-the-art cancer care close to home. The CoC provides the public with information on the resources, services, and cancer treatment experience for each CoC-accredited cancer program through the CoC Hospital Locator at FACS.org/search/cancer-programs.
Members of the oncology team at King's Daughters include from left, radiologist Mayola Boykin, M.D.; radiation oncologist Jeffrey Lopez, M.D.; hematologists/oncologists David Goebel, M.D., and Vinay Vermani, M.D.; pathologist Katalin Kovacs, M.D., and pulmonologist Bjorn Thorarinsson, M.D.
