W&I cancer program re-approved, commended

PROVIDENCE – Women & Infants Hospital’s cancer program has earned a three-year approval with commendation, the highest level of approval available, from The American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer, the hospital announced last week.

The hospital’s Program in Women’s Oncology treats hundreds of gynecologic and breast cancer patients each year from Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

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Women & Infants participates in a voluntary program with the Commission on Cancer that requires submission of data and a site visit, which was conducted at the hospital last fall.

The commission evaluates programs against a list of 36 standards, covering everything from how patients are diagnosed and treated, to the support services and community education offered and the research being conducted.

On the hospital’s side, the application for approval was submitted by the Cancer Committee, which includes representatives from nursing, social services, research, hospice care, quality management, pharmacy, dietary, pastoral care, and the tumor registry, as well as physicians from diagnostic imaging, radiation oncology, pathology, medical oncology, surgery and gynecologic oncology. A multidisciplinary approach is required by commission standards.

“Approval from the Commission on Cancer is only given to facilities that are committed to providing the best diagnosis and treatment of cancers,” said Dr. Margaret Steinhoff, who chairs the Cancer Committee at Women & Infants, in a news release. “Each program is scrutinized, and its performance is reviewed.”

The commission’s approval must be renewed every three years, which Dr. Cornelius “Skip” Granai, director of the Program in Women’s Oncology, said keeps hospitals focused on continuous improvement.

“It is wonderful that this institution is recognized nationally as a leader,” he said in the news release. “Our community is very fortunate to have a hospital like Women & Infants, which has achieved top accreditation not only for its cancer care, but also for so many other exemplary services that it provides to the women and newborns in the region.”

Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island – a member of the Care New England health care network and the Brown University Medical School’s primary teaching affiliate for obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics – is the 10th largest obstetrical service in the country, with more than 9,000 deliveries per year. It was named a National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2003, and has been listed three times among the nation’s best hospitals in gynecology in the U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of America’s Best Hospitals (in 2000, 2001 and 2004). To learn more, visit www.womenandinfants.org.