Thank you for your interest in CoC accreditation. The CoC is a nationally recognized multidisciplinary accreditation program. By working with our national partners, the CoC has developed comprehensive, patient-centered standards for cancer programs. Your cancer program will be evaluated against these standards to demonstrate compliance and your commitment to providing high-quality cancer care.
Approximately 1,500 CoC-accredited cancer programs in the United States treat more than 70% of recently diagnosed patients with cancer annually in the US. We encourage your cancer program to become part of this important network of accredited cancer programs dedicated to delivering high-quality cancer care!
Key Dates for 2022 Application
If your cancer program is submitting an application for a site visit in 2022:
- Your program must be able to demonstrate compliance with all of the Optimal Resources for Cancer Care (2020 Standards) in 2021*.
- Your program’s initial site visit will be scheduled after July 1, 2022.
- Your program must have established a reference date no later than January 1, 2020, in order to provide a complete calendar year of abstracted data from 2020 and a complete year of follow-up on 2020 abstracted data
If your program has any questions, please contact Sue Rubin.
* The COVID-19 Accreditation Tracker may not be used in lieu of standard compliance.
What You Get
The CoC provides tools, resources, and data that enable cancer programs to deliver comprehensive, high-quality, multidisciplinary evidence-based, patient-centered care to their patients with cancer.
Access to the Rapid Cancer Reporting System and other Reporting Tools
Annually, all CoC-accredited programs are required to submit data to the Rapid Cancer Reporting System (RCRS). The data include—but are not limited to—patient characteristics, cancer staging and tumor histological characteristics, type of first-course treatment administered, and outcomes information. CoC-accredited programs are provided with access to web-based tools to support quality improvement, community assessment, and cancer program administration. The tools can be used to:
- Evaluate and compare the cancer care delivered to patients diagnosed and/or treated at your facility with other CoC-accredited facilities at the state, regional, and national levels
- Identify areas for quality improvement to ensure that patients receive the right treatment at the right time
- Compare quality-related performance measures with aggregated CoC-accredited programs, including accountability, quality improvement, and surveillance measures
- Assess performance across multiple disease sites
- Run benchmark reports to drive quality improvement and quality assurance activities
- Track and analyze data on all types of cancer to:
- Explore trends in cancer care
- Review regional and state benchmarks for CoC-accredited facilities
- Serve as the basis for quality improvement
- Access participant user files so that investigators can advance the quality of care delivered to patients with cancer
RCRS reporting tools make CoC-accredited programs better at addressing data quality issues, identifying patient care challenges, and focusing their performance improvement efforts in a way that benefits the patient.
Education and Training
We offer in-person workshops and webinars to educate you about the standards and reporting tools, best practices to support compliance with the standards, and tips and techniques for preparing for the onsite visit.
Tools and Templates
Resources are provided to assist you in recording and tracking your cancer program activity for select standards in between and in preparation for site visits.
Program Support
Your program is given access to the CAnswer Forum online community to ask questions, search topics, and connect with cancer program colleagues across the country to share best practices.
Marketing Resources
Promote your CoC-accreditation to your community with a variety of resources made available to accredited programs, including certificates, posters, and banner stands. Your cancer program is also promoted to the public through the American College of Surgeons Find an Accredited Cancer Program tool.
Networks
If you are interested in applying as a new Integrated Network Cancer Program (INCP) or National Cancer Institute-Designated Network Cancer Program (NCIN), please review the Guidelines to Form an INCP/NCIN.
