NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County on Tuesday announced that The Commission on Cancer (CoC), a quality program of the American College of Surgeons (ACS), has granted three-year accreditation to the hospital’s state-of-the-art Cancer Care Center.
To earn voluntary CoC accreditation, a cancer program must meet 34 CoC quality care standards, be evaluated every three years through a rigorous survey process and maintain levels of excellence in the delivery of comprehensive patient-centered care.
“The multidisciplinary approach used at top cancer centers like NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County, brings the expertise of several specialists, including surgeons, pathologists, oncologists, radiation therapists, nurses, social workers and others, to bear in customizing treatment for each patient,” the sprawling hospital in the heart of the Caribbean community in Brooklyn said in a statement.
“This collaboration also means that you will get the care you need right away, rather than waiting between appointments with various specialists,” it added.
Sheldon P. McLeod, chief executive officer at NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County, said that undergoing the comprehensive survey process to attain national accreditation from the Commission on Cancer “demonstrates that our hospital measures our level of quality patient care against the highest national standards.”
“We remain dedicated to ensuring that our cancer patients continue to receive personalized, advanced healthcare services,” he said.
Dr. Steven Pulitzer, chief medical officer at NYC Health +Hospitals/Kings County, said: “We have embarked on a journey to provide the highest quality and up-to-date cancer care to our community.
“This is an exciting time in medical oncology as individualized treatments based on patient genomics has revolutionized treatment planning for certain cancers,” he said. “We are early adopters. Our patients receive university level care at our facility regardless of their ability to pay for treatment.
“I am proud to be part of the medical staff of dedicated, mission-driven physicians as we change the landscape of cancer care for our community,” Dr. Pulitzer added.
Dr. Michele Follen, chair of the Cancer Committee at NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County, said oncologists at the hospital are “doubly boarded and have trained in the premier institutions in the United States.
“This nationally esteemed accreditation is a reflection of the ongoing commitment from our hospital’s medical staff,” she said. “We are dedicated to provide the very best treatment for our patients.
“Having our standards of care reviewed favorably by the American College of Surgeons is indicative of the quality we deliver,” Dr. Follen added.
Kings County Hospital said patients who receive care at a CoC facility also have access to information on clinical trials and new treatments, genetic counseling and patient centered services, including psycho-social 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.
“The CoC Accreditation Program provides the framework for NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County to provide continuous quality improvement of various cancer-related programs that focus on the full spectrum of cancer care including prevention, early diagnosis, cancer staging, optimal treatment, rehabilitation, life-long follow-up for recurrent disease and end-of-life care,” the statement said.
