Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach is the first children’s hospital cancer program in California to receive Three-Year Accreditation with Commendation by the Commission on Cancer (CoC) of the American College of Surgeons (ACoS). Areas of Commendation received were cancer committee leadership, cancer data management, clinical services, research, community outreach and quality improvement.

“Jonathan Jaques Children’s Cancer Center association with the CoC allows us to assess and continue to improve our cancer treatment by giving us the opportunity to compare our outcomes and treatment with other institutions,” says Amanda Termuhlen, M.D., medical director, Jonathan Jaques Children’s Cancer Center, Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach. “Receiving this accreditation reinforces the culture of excellence that is a cornerstone of how we serve our community. It also is the tangible evidence of our center’s commitment to providing the highest quality of patient and family centered care.”

The core functions of the CoC include setting standards for quality, multi-disciplinary cancer patient care; surveying facilities to evaluate compliance with the 34 CoC standards; collecting standardized and quality data from accredited facilities; and using the data to develop effective educational interventions to improve cancer care outcomes at the national, state and local level.

A CoC-accredited cancer program also ensures patients have access to a cancer registry that collects data on type and stage of cancers and treatment results and offers lifelong patientfollow-up ongoing monitoring and improvement of care.

During the on-site evaluation by a physician surveyor, Jonathan Jaques Children’s Cancer Center (JJCCC) at Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach demonstrated a Commendation Level of compliance with multiple standards that represented the full scope of the cancer program.

The Accreditation Program, a component of the CoC, sets quality-of-care standards for cancer programs and reviews the programs to ensure they conform to those standards. Accreditation by the CoC is given only to those facilities that have voluntarily committed to providing the highest level of quality cancer care and that undergo a rigorous evaluation process and review of their performance.

“Receiving care at a CoC-accredited cancer program ensures that a patient will have access to comprehensive care, including state-of-the art services and equipment, a multi-specialty team approach to coordinate the best treatment options, information about ongoing clinical trials and new treatment options, as well as access to cancer-related information, education and support, and most importantly, quality care close to home,” says Dr. Termuhlen.

Every three days a child is diagnosed with cancer or a serious blood disorder at JJCCC. The American Cancer Society (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 US and Puerto Rico, representing close to 30 percent of all hospitals. This 30 percent of hospitals diagnose and/or treat approximately 80 percent of all newly diagnosed cancer patients each year. In addition, a national network of more than 1,650 volunteer Cancer Liaison Physicians provides leadership and support for the CoC Accreditation Program and other CoC activities at these local facilities.