Highland Hospital's Radiation Oncology Services Receive Accreditation for High Quality, Safety
January 30, 2012
Radiation Oncology Team
Highland Hospital’s Radiation Oncology services have received three-year accreditation in radiation oncology as the result of a recent review by the American College of Radiology (ACR) and endorsed by The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). Three individual certifications were granted to recognize Highland Radiation Oncology services delivered at Highland Hospital, the Sands Cancer Center in Canandaigua and the Cancer Center at Park Ridge in Greece.
"This is a gold stamp for the radiation oncology services at these facilities, and it is tremendous assurance for patients that the treatment they receive at one of these sites is measured to be of the highest quality and up to the best standards," said Yuhchyau Chen, M.D., Ph.D., Philip Rubin Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Rochester Medical Center’s James P. Wilmot Cancer Center.
Highland Radiation Oncology services are part of URMC’s Department of Radiation Oncology with its primary radiation site at the Wilmot Cancer Center, which also received accreditation. (Representatives from all Radiation Oncology sites pictured above.)
Accreditation is awarded only to facilities meeting specific practice guidelines and technical standards developed by ACR and ASTRO after a peer-review evaluation by board-certified radiation oncologists and medical physicists who are experts in the field. Patient care and treatment, patient safety, personnel qualifications, adequacy of facility equipment, quality control procedures and quality assurance programs are assessed. The application process required extensive documentation and a rigorous three-day site visit.
This is the sixth time since 1997 Highland has received a three-year accreditation for its Radiation Oncology services, the most recent of which runs through 2014.
Radiation oncology (radiation therapy) is the careful use of high-energy radiation to treat cancer and some benign lesions, while minimizing radiation exposure to normal surrounding tissues. A radiation oncologist may use radiation to cure cancer, to relieve a cancer patient’s pain, or to improve quality of life.
About ACR & ASTRO
The ACR is a national professional organization serving more than 34,000 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. ASTRO is a professional organization serving more than 10,000 radiation oncologists, medical physicists and other health care professionals involved in the treatment of cancer patients.