As part of our celebration of 10 years of the Nassif Community Cancer Center, our team members will give an inside look into the services available to our patients and how they can help them along the cancer journey.
In this article, Kimberly Ivester, director of the Community Cancer Center, shares about the accreditations held by our clinical partners and what it means for our patients.
At the Helen G. Nassif Community Cancer Center, our patients are at the center of all we do. Each day we focus on providing high-quality, comprehensive cancer care for our patients from diagnosis through survivorship. The Nassif Community Cancer Center and our partners, St. Luke’s Cancer Care and Physicians’ Clinic of Iowa, together hold accreditation from the Commission on Cancer (CoC) and the American College of Radiology (ACR) as a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence (BICOE). We are also the only program in Cedar Rapids to be accredited by the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC).
“These accreditations mean we hold ourselves to the highest quality standards and adhere to national guidelines,” said Ivester.
Commission on Cancer
Receiving care at a CoC-accredited cancer program ensures that a patient will have access to the full quality spectrum of comprehensive cancer care close to home. There are currently more than 1500 CoC-accredited cancer programs in the United States and these facilities treat 71 percent of newly diagnosed cancer patients each year. In Iowa there are 11 CoC-accredited facilities.
American College of Radiology as a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence
The BICOE designation is awarded to breast imaging centers that achieve excellence by seeking and earning accreditation in all of the ACR’s voluntary breast imaging accreditation programs and modules. These include mammography, stereotactic breast biopsy, breast ultrasound and breast MRI. BICOEs like St. Luke’s Breast and Bone Health reach the ACR’s high standards in all these areas.
National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers
A breast center that achieves NAPBC accreditation has demonstrated a firm commitment to offer its patients every significant advantage in their battle against breast disease. During the survey process, the center must demonstrate compliance with standards established by the NAPBC for treating women who are diagnosed with breast disease, including cancer. The standards include proficiency in the areas of center leadership, clinical management, research, community outreach, professional education and quality improvement. We are one of only eight NAPBC centers in Iowa and the only in Cedar Rapids.
Additionally, the Nassif Community Cancer Center’s partnerships with community specialists and commitment to providing a wide range of support services allows for the highest quality of care for all patients in all stages of their cancer journey.
“We collaborate with community specialists to ensure we provide high quality, comprehensive care from prevention and screening through treatment and survivorship,” said Ivester. “We also have the most extensive offering of support services in the area, which helps us to proactively identify and address barriers and side effects patients experience with treatment. We routinely monitor quality metrics and make improvements and adjustments to our services and programs when needed.”
To learn more about the services provided for cancer patients, from screening through survivorship, call (319) 558-4876 or visit communitycancercenter.org. You can also learn more about our accreditations: Commission on Cancer accreditation, American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Center of Excellence accreditation and National Accreditation Program for Breast Center’s accreditation.
Kimberly Ivester
Director
Kimberly Ivester has been the director of the Helen G. Nassif Community Cancer Center since April 2011.
