Evangelical Community Hospital Earns Commission on Cancer Reaccreditation

The Commission on Cancer (CoC), a quality program of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) has granted three-year reaccreditation to the cancer program at Evangelical Community Hospital. 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. 

“At Evangelical, we strive to provide the most effective, high-quality, compassionate care to our cancer patients and we are extremely proud that our program meets such rigorous quality standards as required by the CoC,” said Andrea Bertram, Operations Director of Women’s Health and Cancer Services at Evangelical Community Hospital.

“We recognize that our patients are allowing us into their lives and our dedicated team of cancer specialists is committed to providing wide-ranging, state-of-the-art care for them,” continued Bertram.
Evangelical’s original accreditation of its cancer program from the CoC came in 2018. A most recent site-visit by the CoC affirmed the Hospital and the Thyra M. Humphreys Center for Breast Health continue to maintain a high-standard for its cancer patients.

At Evangelical, Cancer Services takes a multi-disciplinary approach to treating cancer as a complex group of diseases that require consultation among medical professionals including surgeons, medical and radiation oncologists, diagnostic radiologists, pathologists, and other specialists. This collaborative method that takes the whole patient into consideration results in improved patient care.

“The CoC accreditation program provides a successful structure for our Hospital to focus on the quality of its cancer care in the areas of early diagnosis, cancer staging, treatment, follow-up, survivorship, and compassionate end-of-life care,” said John Turner, MD, FACS, Medical Director of Cancer Services at Evangelical.

At Evangelical, patients who receive cancer care have access to clinical trials, genetic counseling, and patient-centered services including psycho-social support and a patient navigation process.

Daria Keyser, DO, General Surgeon at Surgical Specialists of Evangelical, chairs the Cancer Committee at the Hospital. She confirmed the importance of applying for the voluntary CoC accreditation and the work it takes to achieve the honor.

Keyser said, “All CoC accredited facilities, including Evangelical, maintain a cancer registry and contribute to the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB), a joint program of the CoC and American Cancer Society. This nationwide oncology outcomes collective is the largest clinical disease registry in the world. Data on all types of care are traced and analyzed through the NCDB and used to explore trends in cancer care.”

As part of the reaccreditation, Evangelical has access to the information derived from this greater database and can use the valuable insight to continue to enhance quality improvement efforts for treatment plans covering a wide range of cancers for its patients.

For more information on cancer services available at Evangelical Community Hospital, visit www.evanhospital.com/CancerServices.