Cancer Treatment Centers of America at Southeastern Regional Medical Center has been granted a three-year accreditation with commendation by the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons.
 
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 committed to providing personalized, patient-centered care, with the help of some of the best minds in the oncology community,” said Dr. Rabih Bechara, Cancer Committee Chairman and Chief of Interventional Pulmonology, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at CTCA at Southeastern. “This recognition demonstrates our dedication to integrative care, which provides patients and caregivers a spectrum of leading resources to fight their individual cancer battles. We look forward to continuing this work with our partners in healthcare and the community to bring innovative care options to the forefront.”
 
The Newnan-based hospital’s certification comes on the heels of its breast center being recognized by the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers, which granted a three-year/full accreditation to CTCA at Southeastern for its commitment to providing the highest level of quality breast care. In addition, the hospital also received recognition by the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative Certification Program, an affiliate of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, earlier this year for completing a three-year certification program for outpatient hematology-oncology practices that meet nationally recognized standards for quality cancer care.
 
The CoC Accreditation Program provides the framework for CTCA at Southeastern to improve its quality of patient care through various cancer-related programs that focus on the full spectrum of cancer care. These programs include prevention, early diagnosis, cancer staging, optimal treatment, rehabilitation, life-long follow-up for recurrent disease, and end-of-life care.

Like all CoC-accredited facilities, CTCA at Southeastern maintains a cancer registry and contributes data to the National Cancer Data Base, 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.