Holy Name Press Releases

Holy Name Medical Center Earns ACR Accreditation Represents Quality & Safety in Radiation Oncology

May 13, 2014

Holy Name Medical Center, has been awarded a three-year term of accreditation in radiation oncology as the result of a recent review by the American College of Radiology (ACR). Radiation oncology (radiation therapy) is the careful use of high-energy radiation to treat cancer. A radiation oncologist may use radiation to treat cancer or to relieve a cancer patient's pain.

The ACR is the nation's oldest and most widely accepted radiation oncology accrediting body, with over 500 accredited sites, and 25 years of accreditation experience. The ACR seal of accreditation represents the highest level of quality and patient safety. It is awarded only to facilities meeting 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. Patient care and treatment, patient safety, personnel qualifications, adequacy of facility equipment, quality control procedures, and quality assurance programs are assessed. 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 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.

Holy Name Medical Center's Cancer Center is also accredited by the American College of Surgeons - Commission on Cancer.

State-of-the-art radiation is available at Holy Name Medical Center:

• Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT): Doctors are able to use online computerized imaging to pinpoint the precise positioning of the patient immediately prior to each treatment session. The process is designed to improve treatment accuracy so that a smaller, more-defined field of treatment can be used and to better protect healthy tissue surrounding the tumor. This enables delivery of a higher dose of radiation to more effectively control the tumor.
• Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT): IMRT is now the gold standard in radiation treatment for many cancers. The Regional Cancer Center's latest-generation Varian technology enables physicians to shape multiple beams of high-energy radiation to the precise dimensions of the malignancy, maximizing the dose of radiation to the tumor while minimizing exposure to surrounding healthy tissues.
• CT-guided prone breast radiation therapy: Prone breast treatment is for select patients. Unlike most breast radiation treatments, in which the patient receives radiation while lying on her back, prone breast radiation therapy is administered while the patient lies face down. With the breasts projected downward, radiation can be aimed with greater precision at the breast.
• PET/CT: PET/CT has been utilized for diagnosis, staging and radiation treatment planning at Holy Name Medical Center for longer than at any other center in the region. Our radiologists, radiation oncologists, and physicists co-authored a seminal research paper on the topic of PET/CT for radiation treatment planning.
• Respiratory Gated PET/CT: Holy Name is the first Medical Center to use respiratory gated PET/CT for respiratory gated radiation treatment. This helps further protect normal tissues, especially in the regions of the body that move excessively with respiration, such as the lungs and abdomen.
• High Dose Rate Brachytherapy: High Dose Rate (HDR) brachytherapy is a computer-driven treatment method, in which a temporary radiation source, or "seed" is remotely, safely, and accurately placed directly into a cancerous area. Treatment takes only a few minutes and can often replace an entire multi-week course of external beam radiation therapy. Results have shown excellent control of disease and few side effects. HDR brachytherapy is used to treat many cancer sites, including prostate, lung, breast.
• Stereotactic Radiosurgery/Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy: Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) treats tumors in the brain and other parts of the body using highly conformal and dose-maximized treatment planning, with an entire course of treatment delivered in as few as one to eight treatment sessions. This type of treatment requires continuous motion and positioning monitoring during the treatment.

• One stop, comprehensive service featuring easily-accessed local care and resources.
• A multidisciplinary approach that uses the expertise of many specialists to care for individual patients, which is critical to obtaining the most effective care with the best possible prognosis.
• Excellence in all three branches of oncology care: radiation, medical and surgical.
• Leading-edge diagnostic, staging and treatment technology.
• Talented oncologists and other physician specialists, all certified by their respective boards.
• Skilled and compassionate nurse practitioners, oncology certified nurses, physicists, dosimetrists and radiation oncology therapists, as well as an oncology pharmacist, oncology social worker and oncology certified dietician, all dedicated specifically to the Cancer Center.
• Supportive care; including counseling, home and hospice care, physical rehabilitation services and nutritional guidance. To learn more, visit http://www.holyname.org or call 1-877-HOLY-NAME (1-877-465-9626)