A patient-centered approach is at the forefront of new accreditation standards for hospital cancer programs released today by the Commission on Cancer (CoC) of the American College of Surgeons (ACS). "The changing landscape of cancer patient care motivated us to develop new standards to directly address patient concerns," said Stephen Edge, MD, FACS, Chair of the Commission on Cancer. "These standards enhance the focus of care so that it is much more than a defined structure of clinical treatment."
The new CoC standards ensure that key elements of quality cancer care are provided to every person with cancer treated in a CoC-accredited facility throughout their diagnosis and treatment process, as well as psychosocial support, care for cancer-related pain, palliative care, and hospice care.
Four national cancer patient support/advocacy organizations worked closely with the CoC to develop the new patient-centered standards to better enable cancer patients to work with their interdisciplinary cancer treatment team and become partners in their own care. Family members are also welcome participants in the process.
These advocacy group contributions are reflected in three key areas of patient-centered treatment and include:
•A patient navigation process to address health care disparities and barriers to care.
•Screening patients for psychosocial distress.
•A survivorship care plan that documents care received and seeks to improve cancer survivors' quality of life.
The four patient support/advocacy organizations that are members of the CoC and provided key input into the development of these standards are: the American Cancer Society, the Cancer Support Community, the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, and LIVESTRONG. These groups also contributed input on how patient-centered standards could be implemented into the framework of CoC-accredited cancer programs.
Additionally, new patient-centered standards have been developed that require accredited programs to offer patients palliative care (either on site or by referral) and genetic services (either on site or by referral by a qualified genetics professional).
The CoC standards require a coordination of care among many medical disciplines including physicians ranging from primary care providers to specialists in all oncology disciplines. Clinical and allied-health professionals including nursing, social work, genetics, nutrition, rehabilitation, and others also help to ensure that patient needs are addressed. This complex system of care can be a challenge for many cancer patients and their families, prompting the CoC to work with the American Cancer Society to develop a patient navigation process standard. Specifically, the CoC will require that its accredited cancer programs perform an assessment of their community and develop programs to address barriers to access and cancer care.
"Integrating this extra layer of support alongside curative treatment is essential to reduce suffering and improve quality of life for cancer patients and their loved ones," said Otis W. Brawley, MD, chief medical officer, American Cancer Society. "Cancer patients who seek care at CoC-accredited facilities will benefit from interdisciplinary teams who focus on relieving symptoms, pain, and stress, and can help coordinate communication among the patients, their families, and their medical team."
Another component of the "extra layer of support" Dr. Brawley mentions is the patient's psychosocial well-being. The new CoC standard that requires all patients be screened for distress was developed in consultation with the Cancer Support Community (CSC), a group that "has long been a champion of distress screening at critical stages along a person's cancer journey," explains Kim Thiboldeaux, CSC president and CEO. "We are particularly pleased with the Commission's adoption of a standard requiring that all cancer patients be screened for distress," she said. "We will support implementation of this new standard by continuing to make a wide array of support services available through our network of more than 50 professionally led community-based centers as well as online, so that no one has to face cancer alone."