Lake Forest Hospital Receives Accreditation

Submitted by Northwestern Medicine.

Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital has received another three-year accreditation of its cancer care services from the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer (CoC). To earn the new CoC accreditation, the hospital had to meet 46 different cancer care specific quality standards, which will continue to be regularly evaluated every three years with an on-site survey. These standards help reinforce a multidisciplinary approach to treating cancer as a complex group of diseases that require collaboration among a wide range of specialists including surgeons, medical and radiation oncologists, pathologists, and diagnostic radiologists.

“Our multidisciplinary team of cancer care professionals have worked hard to achieve and maintain CoC accreditation and our high level of quality,” said Karline Peal, MBA, RT(T), ROCC , director of Cancer Services at Lake Forest Hospital. “We are proud to be listed among some the best hospitals in the country that share this important cancer care accreditation.”

While only approximately 30 percent of all hospitals in the U.S. are accredited by the CoC, these hospitals treat and/or diagnose more than 70 percent of all newly diagnosed cancer patients. The accreditation program’s standards focus on the full spectrum of cancer care including prevention, early diagnosis, cancer staging, optimal treatment, rehabilitation, end-of-life care and survivorship.