Tanner Cancer Care’s Roy Richards, Sr. Cancer Center has been awarded a three-year term of accreditation, July 2013 through July 2016, in radiation oncology as the result of a recent review by the American College of Radiology (ACR). Radiation oncology (also known as radiation therapy) is the careful use of high-energy radiation to treat cancer. A radiation oncologist may use radiation to eliminate cancer cells or to relieve a cancer patient’s pain.
“The Roy Richards, Sr. Cancer Center is one of the few cancer centers of this size in Georgia that has achieved ACR accreditation,” said Loy Howard, president and CEO of Tanner Health System. “This important accreditation represents our ability to provide technically advanced radiation therapy techniques and excellent patient care, with a commitment to the utmost levels of quality and patient safety.”
The ACR is the nation’s oldest and most widely accepted radiation oncology accrediting body, with more than 500 accredited sites and 25 years of accreditation experience. The ACR seal of accreditation represents the highest level of quality and patient safety. It is awarded only to facilities meeting specific practice guidelines and technical standards developed by ACR after a peer-review evaluation by board-certified radiation oncologists and medical physicists who are experts in the field.
“This was a great opportunity for an outside, unbiased and well-respected organization to review in detail our cancer center in regards to quality assurance, technical specifications and overall patient care,” said J. Richard Bland, MD, a board-certified radiation oncologist with Tanner Radiation Oncology and medical operations leader for Tanner Cancer Care.
Patient care and treatment, patient safety, personnel qualifications, adequacy of facility equipment, quality control procedures and quality assurance programs are assessed as part of the accreditation process. The findings are reported to the ACR Committee on Radiation Oncology Accreditation, which subsequently provides the practice with a comprehensive report they can use for continuous practice improvement.
“Not only was the reviewing team of physicians and medical physicists happy to reward us with full accreditation, they were quite amazed at the level of service that a health system of our size is able to deliver to the community,” said Dr. Bland. “We are, of course, very delighted with the results of our survey, but we also benefited from having the ability to ask questions of them, with their nationwide experiences, on how we can continue to improve and achieve our commitment to provide the best cancer care available to our service area.”
The ACR is a national professional organization serving more than 36,000 diagnostic/interventional radiologists, radiation oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians, and medical physicists with programs focusing on the practice of medical imaging and radiation oncology and the delivery of comprehensive health care services.
Located on the campus of Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton, the Roy Richards, Sr. Cancer Center is part of Tanner Cancer Care’s complete approach to treating cancer, including the latest in sophisticated and precise radiation therapies. To learn more about the Roy Richards, Sr. Cancer Center and the Tanner Cancer Care Promise: Three Days From Diagnosis to Treatment Options, visit www.TannerCancerCare.org.