Mountain View, CA - April 29, 2013 - El Camino Hospital today announced that the Commission on Cancer (COC) of the American College of Surgeons (ACoS) has granted a three-year Accreditation with Commendation to the Cancer Center at El Camino Hospital.
To earn voluntary CoC accreditation, a cancer program must meet or exceed 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. Three-Year Accreditation with Commendation is only awarded to a facility that exceeds standard requirements at the time of its triennial survey.
"We are extremely proud of this remarkable achievement to receive both an accreditation but also six commendations, which is almost unheard of for such a relatively new program in a community hospital setting," said Tomi Ryba, president and chief executive officer of El Camino Hospital. "This team of dedicated professionals has carefully evaluated every aspect of patient care from prevention and education to treatment, survivorship, and end of life care. We take great pride in knowing that our patients will be receiving the most comprehensive care while fighting this terrible disease." Because it is a CoC-accredited cancer center, El Camino Hospital 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.
In addition to being in constant consultation with one another, clinicians at El Camino Hospital also participate in a weekly Tumor Board, a case conference to review the most difficult cases, have them evaluated by a multidisciplinary team of radiologists, pathologists and clinicians, and discuss potential courses of treatment for patients. The El Camino Hospital Cancer Center, as a CoC-accredited center, is dedicated to providing quality 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. In particular, El Camino Hospital offers a nurse navigator program to work with patients and their families to help them chart a course through their cancer journey and to be their advocates within the healthcare system. They provide education, support, assistance with insurance or applying for financial support, helping them find clinical trials or even something as simple as arranging for them to get to the hospital for an appointment.
"To achieve this accreditation and the commendations in just four years was truly a team effort," said Shyamali Singhal, MD, PhD, medical director of the Cancer Center at El Camino Hospital. "Our program is designed to be focused on the patient experience and we have brought - and continue to bring - critical diagnostics and innovative treatments, along with holistic services that ease the patient’s journey." Like all CoC-accredited facilities, El Camino Hospital maintains a cancer registry and contributes data to the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB), a joint program of the CoC and American Cancer Society (ACS). 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.
ACS estimates that more than 1.6 million cases of cancer will be diagnosed in 2013. There are currently more than 1,500 CoC-accredited cancer programs in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, representing 30 percent of all hospitals. CoC-accredited facilities diagnose and/or treat more than 70 percent of all newly diagnosed cancer patients.
About the Commission on Cancer (CoC) of the American College of Surgeons (ACoS)
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: www.facs.org/cancer.
About El Camino Hospital
El Camino Hospital is an acute-care, 443-bed, nonprofit and locally governed organization with campuses in Mountain View and Los Gatos, Calif. In addition to state-of-the-art emergency departments, key medical specialties include heart and vascular, cancer care, urology, orthopedic and spine, genomic medicine, and the only Women’s Hospital in Northern California. The hospital is recognized as a national leader in the use of health information technology and wireless communications, and has been awarded the Gold Seal of Approval from The Joint Commission as a Primary Stroke Center as well as back-to-back ANCC Magnet Recognitions for Nursing Care.
