FALL RIVER – The cancer care program at St. Anne’s Hospital has been granted three-year approval with commendation by the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer.
First accredited by the commission in 1985, the St. Anne’s program has been specifically cited for expertise in areas including: its community outreach programs for cancer prevention and early detection; its analysis of patient outcomes, by the leaders of the hospital’s cancer committee; its compliance with the American Joint Committee on Cancer’s system of “staging” cancers to describe their extent; the education of the hospital cancer registry’s staff; and the program’s ongoing quality-improvement initiatives.
The ACS commission gives its approval only to facilities that make a commitment to providing the highest level of cancer care and pass a rigorous evaluation and on-site review.
Since its inception in 1976, the St. Anne’s program has registered more than 26,000 cases of breast, prostate, gynecological, colorectal, gastrointestinal, head and neck, lung and other cancers.
The hospital’s Hudner Oncology Center provides coordinated outpatient and inpatient care to more than 2,000 people each year at the hospital and The Oncology Center in North Dartmouth, and provides consultation services in Newport.
The Hudner Center is the region’s only radiation-therapy facility. Its services include intensity-modulated therapy and this spring are to add high-dose-rate radiation therapy.
Its 13 board-certified oncology physicians include radiation oncologists affiliated with Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. Also on the center’s staff are more than 100 oncology-certified nurses, radiation therapists and technical and support specialists and staff.
St. Anne’s Hospital, founded in 1906 by the Dominican Sisters of the Presentation, is a member of the Caritas Christi Health Care nonprofit network. A community hospital serving southeastern Massachusetts and nearby Rhode Island, it is a provider of specialized care including pediatrics, diabetes care, oncology, cardiac care, rehabilitation, pain management and behavioral medicine. Additional information is available at www.SaintAnnesHospital.org.
