16 cancer care facilities receive CoC Outstanding Achievement Award

he Commission on Cancer (CoC) of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) has granted its mid-year 2017 Outstanding Achievement Award to a select group of 16 accredited cancer programs throughout the U.S. Award criteria are based on qualitative and quantitative surveys conducted in the first half of 2017. A list of these award-winning cancer programs is available on the ACS website.

The purpose of the award is to raise the bar on quality cancer care, with the ultimate goal of increasing awareness about quality care choices among cancer patients and their loved ones. In addition, the award is intended to fulfill the following goals:

• Recognize those cancer programs that achieve excellence in providing quality care to cancer patients
• Motivate other cancer programs to work toward improving their level of care
• Facilitate dialogue between award recipients and health care professionals at other cancer facilities for the purpose of sharing best practices
• Encourage honorees to serve as quality care resources to other cancer programs

“More and more, we’re finding that patients and their families want to know how the health care institutions in their communities compare with one another,” said Lawrence N. Shulman, MD, FACP, Chair of the CoC. “They want access to information in terms of who’s providing the best quality of care, and they want to know about overall patient outcomes. Through this recognition program, I’d like to think we’re playing a small but vital role in helping them make informed decisions on their cancer care.”

The 16 award-winning cancer care programs represent approximately 6 percent of programs surveyed by the CoC January 1–June 30, 2017. “These cancer programs currently represent the best of the best when it comes to cancer care,” added Dr. Shulman.