St. Joseph Receives Cancer Accreditation with a Commendation

St. Joseph Regional Health Center recently received Accreditation with Commendation by the American College of Surgeons (ACoS) and the Commission on Cancer (CoC) following an on-site evaluation by a physician surveyor. During the survey, St. Joseph demonstrated a Commendation level of compliance with one or more standards that represent the full scope of the cancer program.

For patients and the Bryan College Station community, this accreditation means comprehensive care, including a complete range of state-of-the-art services and equipment, a team approach to coordinate the best available treatment options, information about ongoing cancer clinical trials and new treatment options, access to prevention and early detection programs, cancer education and support services, a cancer registry that offers lifelong patient follow-up, on-going monitoring and improvements in cancer care, and most importantly – quality care close to home. Receiving this accreditation reiterates that St. Joseph offers the best cancer care in the region.

Those physicians that made it possible to receive this accreditation include Scott Goble, MD, Radiation Oncology and Chair of the St. Joseph Cancer Program Committee; Bryan Parrent, MD, General Surgery and Cancer Liaison Physicians for the Cancer Program Committee; Other significant committee members include Erin Fleener, MD, Medical Oncology, who serves as the Coordinator for Community Outreach and Terry Jenkins, MD, Medical Oncology, who serves as the Coordinator for Cancer Conferences.

Other physicians involved in this effort include Lee Schlictemeier, MD, Medical Director of Radiation Oncology, Fellow of the American College of Radiology and the American College of Radiation Onocology and Kumud Tripathy, MD, Medical Director of Medical Oncology. As this accreditation encompasses all aspects of the cancer program at St Joseph, recognition needs to be extended to all the general surgeons, pulmonary/thoracic surgeons, neurologists, urologists, gynecologists and otolaryngologists, diagnostic radiologists and pathologists who provided care to St Joseph cancer patients.

WHY ST. JOSEPH RECEIVED THE AWARD:

St. Joseph received accreditation as a comprehensive community hospital for meeting all of the following criteria, as well as for the use of the latest protocols, correct equipment, highly trained cancer professionals, medical competency, and a strong compassion for human life.

• Cancer committee leadership
• Cancer data management
• Clinical services
• Community outreach
• Quality improvement

St. Joseph is one of 25 other hospitals in the state of Texas to receive accreditation as a comprehensive community hospital.

ST. JOSEPH CANCER SERVICES:

Some of the cancer services that St. Joseph Cancer Center has available include advanced Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT), Linear Accelerators with on-board imaging for patient convenience, cancer research clinical trials, CT simulation for enhanced mapping of the treatment area, and Oncology-certified staff with years of experience.

ABOUT ST. JOSEPH:

• St. Joseph Regional Health Center is a non-profit 253 bed hospital.
• SJRHC is the region’s only Joint Commission Certified Primary Stroke Center, which requires the hospital to organize a multidisciplinary stroke team to coordinate care among first responders, emergency room staff, physicians, diagnostic staff, rehabilitation staff and other health providers who care for stroke patients.

ABOUT THE COMMISION ON CANCER

• Established in 1922 by the American College of Surgeons, the CoC is a consortium of professional organizations dedicated to improving survival rates and quality of life for cancer patients.
• The core functions of the CoC include setting standards for quality, multidisciplinary cancer patient care; surveying facilities to evaluate compliance with the 36 CoC standards; collecting standardized and 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 level.
• There are currently more than 1,400 CoC-accredited cancer programs in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, representing close to 25 percent of all hospitals.
• The Accreditation 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. Accreditation by the CoC is given only to those facilities that have voluntarily committed to providing the highest level of quality cancer care and that undergo a rigorous evaluation process and review of their performance. To maintain accreditation, facilities with a CoC-accredited cancer program must undergo an on-site review every three years.