TEMPLE, Texas (April 26, 2011) —The Commission on Cancer (CoC) of the American College of Surgeons has granted its Outstanding Achievement Award to Scott & White's Glenda Vasicek Cancer Center as a result of surveys performed in 2010. Scott & White Healthcare, the only facility in Texas to receive this award, is one of a select group of 90 currently accredited and newly-accredited cancer programs across the country.
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 seven standards that represent six areas of cancer program activity: cancer committee leadership, cancer data management, clinical management, research, community outreach, and quality improvement.
"This recognition speaks to Scott & White's commitment to provide multi-modality cancer care," says Subhakar Mutyala, M.D., chairman, department of radiation oncology. "We have a very collaborative team approach to diagnosing and treating cancer. I am honored to be a part of an institution that has been recognized on a national level for its quality of care."
The level of compliance with the seven standards is determined during an on-site evaluation by a physician surveyor. In addition, facilities must receive a compliance rating for the remaining 29 cancer program standards. Ninety programs, including Scott & White Healthcare, received the OAA as a result of surveys performed in 2010. This number represents approximately 17 percent of 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.
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 levels. There are currently more than 1,500 CoC-accredited cancer programs representing 25 percent of all hospitals in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. These CoC-accredited facilities diagnose and/or treat 71 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 U.S. 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.
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 Cancer Programs page of the American College of Surgeons website at http://www.facs.org/cancer/index.html and through the American Cancer Society National Cancer Information Center at 1-800-ACS-2345. For more information about the Commission on Cancer, visit www.facs.org/cancer/index.html(.)
About Scott & White
Scott & White Healthcare is a non-profit collaborative health care system established in 1897 in Temple, TX. Among the leading health care systems encompassing one of the nation's largest multi-specialty group practices, Scott & White provides personalized, comprehensive and the highest quality health care enhanced by medical education and research. Scott & White Healthcare includes 12 hospital sites, two additional announced facilities, more than 60 clinic locations throughout Central Texas and staff exceeding 13,000 (including more than 900 physicians and scientists and nearly 400 specialized health care providers).