Using your cancer program application or activity record can be overwhelming if you leave it all until the end of the abstracting year, or GASP! wait until a few months before your tri-annual survey!
It has happened to the best of us, no need to finger point and blame, just get yourself into a habitual mode of updating after each cancer committee. Start your New Year’s Resolution Now!!! Pick a day in the next 2 weeks that you will dedicate time to go into your record and MINIMALLY do the following checks:
- Review Facility Info
- There is a 1000 character max box that allows you to briefly describe your facility and cancer program. This informed is displayed on the CoC hospital locator page. Make sure it is relevant and current.
- Check when the next CoC survey is due month and year are listed
- Check your category as this is now managed by NCDB based on the number of analytic cases being submitted during the annual call for data
- Check your reference year for accuracy
- Check your date your program was accredited for the very first time (this can be quite a conversation piece
- Manage Staff Contacts
- Check to ensure ALL possible positions have the most current person listed and their contact information is correct – if not you can always delete them or edit their information
- Ensuring you have a billing representative listed for the annual fee invoice so it goes to the correct person responsible for invoices and check requests
- Be sure if someone is no longer affiliated with your program you have removed them from CoC data links access, the CoC has no way to know who is no longer part of your cancer program
- Know who has access to your program information
- Eligibility Requirements
- E1 through E12 must be reviewed and updated at least once per year
- Ensure your documentation and dates are current
- E4 is the only eligibility requirement that does not require documentation
- Cancer Program Standards
- Be sure you have minimally completed the last calendar year of information in the SAR/PAR along with required documentation
- Use the SAR/PAR as your tracking tool and also as you back up to your hard drive if something happened to YOUR records the SAR/PAR is backed up on a server by the CoC on a nightly basis. All is not lost if a document disaster were to occur within your facility or your computer.
- The following standards are the ONLY ones that do not require additional documents to be uploaded to the SAR/PAR each year: 1.2, 1.3,1.4,1.5,1.9,1.11,2.1,2.3,2.4,4.1,4.2,4.8,5.2,5.3,5.4,5.5,5.6 and 5.7
We wish you much success in keep the SAR/PAR on a regular schedule, you can always contact us if you require assistance, guidance or mentorship in cancer program accreditation management.