MORGANTOWN, W.VA. — The Commission on Cancer (CoC), a quality program of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) has granted three-year accreditation to the WVU Cancer Institute’s Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center in Morgantown.
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.
Because it is a CoC-accredited cancer center, the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center, which operates under the legal name West Virginia University Hospitals, takes a multidisciplinary approach to treating cancer as a complex group of diseases that requires consultation among surgeons, medical and radiation oncologists, diagnostic radiologists, pathologists, and other cancer specialists. This multidisciplinary partnership results in improved patient care.
“The Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center is proud of the work we do and the care we provide to patients who choose to seek treatment here,” Hannah Hazard-Jenkins, M.D., F.A.C.S., director of the WVU Cancer Institute, said. “The CoC recertification confirms for ourselves and our patients that we are committed to and providing the highest standard of care for patients diagnosed with cancer.”
The CoC Accreditation Program provides the framework for the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center 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 receives and seeks to improve cancer survivors’ quality of life.
Like all CoC-accredited facilities, the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center 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.
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.
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 FACS.org/Cancer.
For more information on the WVU Cancer Institute, visit WVUMedicine.org/Cancer.
