American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer  (ACOS-CoC) Liaison Report

The new CoC Cancer Program Standards 2004 are a result of revising the old standards to better address defining and measuring quality in cancer care.  Many of the old standards covered the same activity and thus redundancy was being measured as well as addressing areas that were required by other organizations, such as JCAHO.  The previous standards were often difficult to measure and lent themselves to subjective interpretation by the surveyor.  The new standards are fewer, 36 instead of 151, measurable, all required for approval and have key components for structure or process to improve quality.   The CoC Committee on Approvals feels the new standards  will put more emphasis on the institutional Cancer Committees and less micro managing by the CoC.  Striving to meet the new standards and continued accreditation should be more meaningful and beneficial to cancer programs.  For more information on the 2004 standards log on to the CoC's Web site at http://www.facs.org/.

If you have input on particular issues regarding credentialing and ACOS standards, please contact Jeannie O’Leary through the American College of Oncology Administrators/ American Academy of Medical Administrators at 701 Lee Street, Suite 600, Des Plaines, IL 60016, 847-759-8601-Phone, 847-759-8602-FAX, email info@aameda.org. For more information on the ACOS-COC, visit their website: www.facs.org/dept/cancer