HOUSTON—(Oct. 9, 2017) – The cancer program at Houston Methodist West Hospital received a three-year accreditation with commendation from the Commission on Cancer (CoC), a quality program of the American College of Surgeons.
To earn voluntary CoC accreditation, a cancer program must meet or exceed the 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. Three-year accreditation with commendation is only awarded to a facility that exceeds standard requirements at the time of its triennial survey.
“I am very proud of the teamwork and dedication from our cancer services team for their contribution to help achieve this accomplishment,” said Wayne Voss, CEO at Houston Methodist West Hospital. “Our patients and community deserve excellence in cancer care and they can find it here.”
Houston Methodist West 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 CoC Accreditation Program provides the framework for Houston Methodist West 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 Houston Methodist West, 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.
“Our continued commitment is to provide high-quality, innovative and safe patient care all in one location conveniently close to home,” said Voss. “This accreditation is evidence of this commitment.”
Like all CoC-accredited facilities, Houston Methodist West 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.