CoC Member since 1976
As the leading multidisciplinary organization for the cancer care community, the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) has long advocated for the need for patient-centered care. And as a founding member of the Commission on Cancer (CoC) Administrative Member Organization Committee, ACCC is proud to support the Standards, which aim to ensure quality, multidisciplinary, and comprehensive cancer care delivery in all healthcare settings.
The values and priorities of the CoC and ACCC are closely aligned—the need for comprehensive, quality care close to home; a multidisciplinary, team approach; patient-centered services; options for genetic assessment and counseling; palliative care services; clinical trials and new treatment options; quality improvement; and treatment planning based on evidence-based national guidelines, and more.
The majority of ACCC’s Cancer Program Membership—approximately 700 cancer programs across the country—are CoC-accredited, making our members among the first to put the CoC standards into action, establishing new initiatives and processes to ensure their patients received the highest quality care.
ACCC supports our members in implementing the CoC standards through education, communications, and opportunities for members to share effective practices in its listserv, ACCCeXchange.
In an ACCC press release dated March 4, 2013 which announced Virginia Vaitones, MSW, OSW-C, as President of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC), she stated “I am a strong believer in the interdisciplinary team that is needed in today’s cancer care programs to assist our patients and their caregivers navigate the complexities of their care.”
Ms. Vaitones had served as a past president of the Association of Oncology Social Work (AOSW) and represented AOSW on the CoC. Ms. Vaitones was involved in the writing and updating of the CoC’s 2012 standards. Because of her experience with the CoC standards, Ms. Vaitones shared her experience on ACCC’s Program, Guidelines, and Governmental Affairs Committees. Ms. Vaitones was a founding member of the CoC Member Organization Steering Committee and served on the committee that developed ACCC’s patient navigation resource materials.
Throughout the years, ACCC has supported the implementation of CoC standards through its ACCCBuzz blog posts and Oncology Issues journal articles. Here are a few highlights:
- Oncology Distress Screening Distress: prevalence, new standards, and implementation, a Nov/Dec 2012 Oncology Issues article focused on how the screening and management of psychosocial distress is garnering significant national attention since the CoC published the Cancer Program Standards 2012: Ensuring Patient-Centered Care, designed to help accredited programs focus on patient-centered care with the goal of improving the quality of care throughout the United States.
- This Nov/Dec 2013 Oncology Issues Spotlight article on the Elkhart General Hospital Center for Cancer Services in Elkhart, Indiana, highlighted that from 2001-2012, Elkhart General received the CoC Outstanding Achievement Award and was one of only 13 programs in the nation to receive that honor for three consecutive review cycles.
- Journeying Beyond the Physical: Addressing a Patient’s Spiritual Concerns referenced standard – 3.2: Psychosocial Distress Screening, with the goal of utilizing a psychosocial distress screening tool to ensure patients’ physical, psychological, social, spiritual, and financial support needs are being addressed – in addition to their physical disease and symptoms.
- Spiritual Care of Cancer Patients, a March/April 2017 Oncology Issues article detailed how Mercy Health Anderson Hospital’s Spiritual Care Team learned of Standard 3.2: Psychosocial Distress Screening and its potential inclusion of a spiritual needs assessment. They detailed how to bring spiritual care into the treatment of patients with cancer in concrete and meaningful ways, such as incorporating an existing spiritual care plan option within their electronic medical record.
- Dietitian as Navigator: A Winning Combination referenced how CoC Standard 3.1 required that accredited programs have a patient navigation process in place. The blog explored how a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) can effectively serve as a patient’s principal navigator, as these patients may see the RDN as often, if not more often, than other team members.
- 8 Ways Your Cancer Registry Can Support Your Cancer Committee explored how cancer registrars play a critical role on the cancer committee since they have a complete picture of the facility’s cancer burden in their database. The cancer registrar can serve as the committee’s data expert by analyzing data and bringing those findings to the committee for use in program planning.
In the 2019 blog post, ACCC Members Respond to CoC’s Draft Standards, ACCC President-Elect and ACCC Member Organization Representative to the CoC Randall A. Oyer, MD, highlighted a few of our members’ views on the likely real-world impact of some of the proposed changes in three areas: Cancer Registry Quality Control, Quality Improvement, and Survivorship Care Plan.
As multiple developments continue to drive the rapid pace of change in oncology, demonstrating quality care to all oncology stakeholders is important than ever. The ACCC is proud to support its members during this dynamic time through its partnership with the CoC.