FORT WAYNE – The Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons has bestowed its Outstanding Achievement Award to Lutheran Hospital’s cancer program, known as Lutheran Cancer Center, as a result of a survey performed earlier this year.
The purpose of the award is to encourage cancer programs to raise the bar on quality cancer care, with the ultimate goal of increasing awareness about high quality, patient-centered care. In addition, the award is intended to:
· Recognize those cancer programs that achieve excellence meeting the CoC Standards
· Motivate other cancer programs to work toward improving their level of quality cancer 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
Lutheran Cancer Center was evaluated on 34 program standards categorized within five cancer program activity areas: cancer committee leadership, cancer data management, clinical services, patient outcomes, and data quality. The cancer program was further evaluated on seven commendation standards. To be eligible, all award recipients must have received commendation ratings in all seven commendation standards, in addition to receiving a compliance rating for each of the 27 other standards.
“This award from the American College of Surgeons is a recognition of the extraordinary efforts by all of the oncology-related specialists, pathologists, radiologists, oncology nurses and members of our tumor registry staff,” said R.V. Prasad Mantravadi, MD, Radiation Oncology Associates, and Steven Rhinehart, MD, Fort Wayne Medical Oncology and Hematology, via a joint statement. Mantravadi and Rhinehart serve as co-chairs of Lutheran’s cancer committee.
Lutheran Cancer Center has maintained its accreditation and the CoC outstanding achievement designation since its first survey as a new program in 2007. Lutheran Cancer Center is the only program in northeastern Indiana to ever earn this designation during four consecutive surveys.
“All four surveys conducted here since 2007 validate our commitment to quality patient care,” said Brian Bauer, CEO, Lutheran Health Network. “I applaud the consistent, multidisciplinary care given daily by physicians, nurses, clinical and support staff to patients and their families fighting cancer.”
