PHILADELPHIA — The American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC) has awarded three-year accreditation to all three Penn Medicine hospitals in recognition of their commitment to the highest level of quality cancer care. The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania Hospital received the commission's top honor, the Outstanding Achievement Award (OAA), and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center received an accreditation with Commendation. The Abramson Cancer Center at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in the nation to receive the OAA for 2011.
"I am proud of our incredible team, which every day is making great strides to advance cancer research and care from the laboratory to the clinic," said Chi Van Dang, MD, PhD, director of the Abramson Cancer Center, which integrates the cancer care and research efforts at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, the Joan Karnell Cancer Center at Pennsylvania Hospital. "The Commission on Cancer's accolades validate our tremendous efforts and prove that patients can be assured that they will receive the most cutting edge, promising treatment for every type of cancer. That care exceeds the medical efforts to shrink their tumors, however. We can also offer patients comprehensive support for psychosocial issues, provide them with rehabilitation and survivorship care as they finish treatment, and we carefully monitor them over time to watch for recurrence of their disease."
The Commission on Cancer accreditation is nationally recognized by the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, and other prestigious organizations as having established performance measures for high-quality cancer care through programs that focus on prevention, early diagnosis, pretreatment evaluation, disease staging assessment, comprehensive treatment, rehabilitation, surveillance for recurrent disease, support services, community outreach and end-of-life care. Cancer data management to track patients over time is also a key part of the accreditation. The Outstanding Achievement Award confers an extra level of distinction to cancer programs based on performance during an on-site assessment by a physician surveyor.
In particular, Dang notes that the Penn Medicine hospitals' cancer registries — a cornerstone for CoC accreditation — provide ongoing opportunities to learn more about the trajectory of cancer diagnosis, treatment, and recurrence. We can go back and look at this information to learn and ultimately develop better treatment recommendations to ensure patients have the best possible chance of living their lives without cancer," he said.
Visit the American College of Surgeons web site for additional information about the CoC accreditation.
Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.