St. Anthony's Radiation Oncology Program Earns ACR Accreditation

The Radiation Oncology program at St. Anthony’s Hospital Cancer Center has been recognized by the American College of Radiology (ACR). The program has received a three-year accreditation from the ACR.

The Cancer Center features radiation therapy on an inpatient and outpatient basis with linear accelerators providing external photon and electron treatment, and three radiation oncologists overseeing care. Radiation oncology (radiation therapy) is the use of high-energy radiation to treat cancer. 

St. Anthony’s now joins the other three BayCare radiation oncology centers at Morton Plant, St. Joseph’s and Winter Haven hospitals with ACR accreditation. 

“We are truly dedicated to our patients and invested in ensuring that their treatment meets their individual needs,” said Scott Smith, St. Anthony’s Hospital president. “This accreditation displays our commitment to provide our patients with radiation therapy services to meet their needs. The ACR accreditation is one that is highly regarded in the medical community due to its rigorous standards.”

The ACR is the nation’s oldest radiation oncology accrediting body, with more than 700 accredited sites, and 30 years of accreditation experience. The ACR seal of accreditation is awarded only to facilities that meet specific Practice Guidelines and Technical Standards developed by ACR after a peer-review evaluation by board-certified radiation oncologists and medical physicists who are experts in the field. 

Only those programs that have voluntarily committed to provide the highest level of quality radiation oncology care and that undergo a strict evaluation process and review of their performance receive ACR accreditation. St. Anthony’s was assessed in such areas as patient care and treatment, patient safety, personnel qualifications, adequacy of facility equipment, quality control procedures and quality assurance programs. The findings are reported to the ACR Committee on Radiation Oncology Accreditation, which subsequently provides the practice with a comprehensive report they can use for continuous practice improvement. 

The ACR Accreditation Committee report said that the radiation oncology team displayed an excellent organization of charts, templates, simulation orders and procedures. “There also is outstanding camaraderie and teamwork and focus on quality improvement processes,” the report said.  

The ACR is a national professional organization serving more than 36,000 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. For more information on the ACR, visit ACR.org.