Akron Children’s earns National Accreditation from the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons

06-28-2023 (Akron, Ohio )

The Commission on Cancer (CoC), a quality program of the American College of Surgeons (ACS), has granted three-year accreditation to the cancer program at Akron Children’s. To earn voluntary CoC accreditation, a cancer program must meet 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. 

Akron Children’s Showers Family Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders takes a multidisciplinary approach to treating cancer as a complex group of diseases that requires consultation among surgeons, medical and radiation oncologists, diagnostic radiologists, pathologists and other cancer specialists. This multidisciplinary partnership results in improved patient care. 

“I’m very proud of the team we have at Akron Children’s,” said Dr. Jeff Hord, pediatric hematologist-oncologist and The LOPen Charities and Mawaka Family Endowed Chair of Hematology and Oncology. “This accreditation from the Commission on Cancer highlights the high-quality work our staff does to improve patient care. We have specialized care teams that focus on different diagnoses and different aspects of the cancer journey such as the neuro-oncology team, , bone marrow transplant team, fertility preservation team, adolescent and young adult team and  childhood cancer survivorship team.”

The CoC accreditation program provides the framework for Akron Children’s to improve its quality of patient care through various cancer-related programs that focus on the full spectrum of cancer care including prevention, early diagnosis, cancer staging, optimal treatment, rehabilitation, lifelong follow-up for recurrent disease, and end-of-life care. When patients receive care at a CoC facility, they also have access to information on clinical trials and new treatments, genetic counseling, and patient-centered services including psychosocial support, a patient navigation process, and a survivorship care plan that documents the care each patient receives and seeks to improve cancer survivors’ quality of life.  

Like all CoC-accredited facilities, Akron Children’s maintains a cancer registry and contributes data to the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB), 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.