| Sept.
28, 2005
Commission
on Cancer grants written commendation on
Upper Michigan Cancer Center at MGH
The Commission
on Cancer (CoC) of the American College of Surgeons has granted
its three-year Approval with Commendation to the Upper
Michigan Cancer Center at Marquette General Hospital.
Commission on Cancer approval is awarded to those facilities that
have committed to provide the best in cancer diagnosis and treatment.
To meet the standards necessary for CoC approval, each cancer
program, and the organization that supports it, must undergo a
rigorous evaluation and performance review.
In order to maintain approval, facilities with approved cancer
programs — like Marquette General — must undergo an
on-site review every three years and document reviews in between.
Marquette General is the only hospital in the Upper Peninsula
with a CoC-approved cancer program.
The Upper Michigan Cancer Center at Marquette General has received
the CoC’s commendation since it implemented radiation therapy
in 1982.
It offers a team of experts to manage patient care across the
entire Upper Peninsula, often working in collaboration with other
hospitals. That team includes eight medical oncologists, two radiation
oncologists, a medical physicist, and a number of other healthcare
professionals who offer radiation therapy, chemotherapy and investigational
therapies for those with cancer.
The center has an active tumor board, an oncology unit and research
department. It offers a number of support groups for patients
and their families (see www.mgh.org/cancer/index.html).
“We take great pride in our program, and receiving approval
with commendation from the Commission on Cancer demonstrates our
continued commitment to offer the finest available oncology and
hematology services to patients in the Upper Peninsula,”
said Terry Reser, Program Director of the Upper Michigan Cancer
Center.
Hematologist/Oncologist Dr.
Dan Arnold has been a part of the Upper Michigan Cancer Center
since 1979.
“We’re very proud of the fact that our Cancer Center
provides comprehensive care and that we offer a wide range of
services,” Arnold said. “We have an active cancer
registry that collects data on cancer type, stage and treatment
results. Our patient care is ongoing … through a multispecialty
team approach to offer the best treatment options.”
Established in 1922 by the American College of Surgeons, the CoC
is a consortium of professional organizations dedicated to reducing
the morbidity and mortality of cancer through education, setting
of standards, and monitoring the quality of cancer care. Its membership
includes Fellows of the American College of Surgeons and 40 national
organizations that reflect the full spectrum of cancer care.
The CoC’s core functions include setting quality standards;
multidisciplinary cancer patient care; surveying facilities to
evaluate compliance with the 36 CoC standards; collecting standardized
and quality data from approved facilities; and using the data
to develop effective educational interventions to improve cancer
care outcomes at the national, state, and local level. Twenty-five
percent of hospitals in the United States have cancer programs
approved by the CoC and 80 percent of newly diagnosed cancer patients
are treated in these institutions.
The Approvals Program, a component of the CoC, sets quality-of-care
standards for cancer programs and reviews the programs to ensure
they conform to those standards.
Receiving care at a CoC-Approved Cancer Program ensures that a
patient will have access to:
· Comprehensive care, including a range of state-of-the-art
services and equipment.
· A multispecialty, team approach to coordinate the best
treatment options.
· Information about ongoing clinical trials and new treatment
options.
· Access to cancer-related information, education, and
support.
· A cancer registry that collects data on type and stage
of cancers and treatment results, and offers lifelong patient
follow-up.
· Ongoing monitoring and improvement of care.
· And, most importantly, quality care close to home.
The American
Cancer Society (ACS) estimates more than 1.3 million cases of
cancer will be diagnosed in 2005. There are currently more than
1,400 CoC-Approved Cancer Programs in the U.S. and Puerto Rico,
representing close to 25 percent of all hospitals.
Cancer patient data are reported by each CoC-Approved Cancer Program
to the CoC’s National Cancer Database (NCDB), a joint program
with the ACS. The NCDB currently contains patient demographics,
tumor characteristics, and treatment and outcomes information
for more than 16 million cancer patients diagnosed and treated
at hospital cancer programs in the U.S. between 1985 and 2003.
These data account for approximately two-thirds of newly diagnosed
cancer cases in the U.S. each year.
The CoC requires programs to implement quality improvement initiatives
that promote the delivery of quality multidisciplinary cancer
care and lead to ongoing educational interventions with local
providers in the CoC-Approved Cancer Programs.
For more information about the Commission of Cancer, visit www.facs.org/cancer/index.html.
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