Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, US - video

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is committed to continuously improving the quality of patient care, research and training through a comprehensive review and evaluation process.

The primary goal of the Quality Improvement (QI) Program is to provide high-quality, cost-effective patient care, while preserving and enhancing the dignity, humanity, and knowledge of the patients served.

Care and service systems are most effectively improved by continuously assessing and analyzing the structure, function, and outcomes of these systems and using those data to indicate appropriate plans of correction.

Improving the quality of patient care at Roswell Park depends on the strong commitment and leadership of the administration and the dedicated participation of  hospital personnel, departments and services. QI activities are focused on improving both systems and individual performance. Individuals at all levels are responsible for assessment of patient care and services, identifying opportunities for improvement, and taking the necessary steps to improve process, performance and ultimately, results.

American College of Surgeons

The American College of Surgeons (ACoS) is a scientific and educational association of surgeons that seeks to improve the quality of care for the surgical patient by setting high standards for surgical education and practice.

The ACoS conducts various programs through its Commission on Cancer to improve the care of the cancer patient. They promote a program that encourages hospitals to develop programs for optimal care of cancer patients and to seek, on a voluntary basis, College approval of these programs.

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is a participant in the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer Approvals Program since 1931. This is a national program for approval of clinical programs at 1,500 hospitals nationwide. Most of the Comprehensive Cancer Centers also participate in this program, like Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.

One of the key elements of the program is participation in a cancer registry program where information on all cancer patients is maintained in a registry. Data that you will see in these outcomes reports largely comes from the registry at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.

As part of the program, The American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer, in collaboration with The American Cancer Society, provides data on proved cancer programs all across the United States through the FIPS Program (Facilities Information Profile System).

It allows patients to determine whether a hospital has a cancer program approved program by the Commission on Cancer of The American College of Surgeons, a mark of commitment to ongoing quality evaluation and improvement in cancer care. The FIPS Program also allows patients to evaluate what programs are available at different participating hospitals. Hospitals in WNY that participate in the Commission on Cancer Approvals Program include: Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Sisters of Charity Hospital, WCA Hospital in Jamestown and Veterans Administration Hospital.

Comprehensive Cancer Center Consortium for Quality Improvement

The Comprehensive Cancer Center Consortium (C4QI) seeks to improve the quality of care to cancer patients by identifying and promoting best practices that provide optimum clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction.

This is accomplished by sharing information in a multidisciplinary, multi-center forum and establishing common benchmarks by which cancer centers can compare themselves to each other via a National Cancer Database. Roswell Park has been a C4QI member since 1999.

Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy

Founded in 1996, FACT establishes standards for high quality medical and laboratory practice in cellular therapies.  FACT is a non-profit corporation co-founded by the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) and the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT) for the purposes of voluntary inspection and accreditation in the field of cellular therapy. 

The major objective of FACT is to promote high quality patient care and laboratory performance in the belief that a valid accreditation must assess both clinical and laboratory aspects. Roswell Park is an accredited facility, and has met the rigorous standards, as defined by the leading experts in the field, and based on the latest knowledge of the field of cellular therapy product transplantation and in compliance with governmental regulations.

Institute for Healthcare Improvement

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) challenges US health care to protect patients from five million incidents of medical harm over the next two years (December 2006 – December 2008). To achieve this, the aim is to enlist at least 4,000 US hospitals in a national commitment to improve patient safety.

Roswell Park is involved in the following 5 Million Lives quality initiatives: Reconcile Medications, Prevent Central Line Infections, Prevent Ventilator Associated Pneumonia, Prevent harm from High Alert Medications, Reduce Surgical Complications, Prevent Pressure Ulcers and Reduce Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) infection.

Joint Commission

The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits nearly 15,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. Since 1951, The Joint Commission has maintained state-of-the-art standards that focus on improving the quality and safety of care provided by health care organizations.

The Joint Commission’s comprehensive accreditation process evaluates an organization’s compliance with these standards and other accreditation requirements.

Joint Commission accreditation is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization’s commitment to meeting certain performance standards. To earn and maintain The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval™, an organization must undergo an on-site survey by a Joint Commission survey team at least every three years. (Laboratories must be surveyed every two years.) Roswell Park had an unannounced survey in the Fall of 2006 and maintains full accreditation with the Gold Seal of Approval.

National Cancer Institute

NCI designation means that a cancer center's combined research, treatment and educational programs have weathered extensive peer review, met rigorous national standards, and made fundamental contributions to reducing the cancer burden.

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is the only upstate New York facility to hold the National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation of "Comprehensive Cancer Center" and one of 48 such centers in the United States.

Since 1971 Roswell Park has been recognized by the NCI as a Comprehensive Cancer Center. It was the nation's first, has served as a national model and is the only NCI hospital in Upstate New York.

National Comprehensive Cancer Network

Roswell Park is also a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), an alliance of the nation's leading cancer centers.

A not-for-profit organization, the NCCN brings together the best minds in science to engineer continuous quality improvements in cancer care; improves the effectiveness of cancer care delivery through the ongoing collection and analysis of outcome data on a national basis; enhances communications and collaboration among member institutions; offers access to the latest, most promising clinical trials; and provides best practice guidelines and measurement tools.

National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators

The National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) is a proprietary database of the American Nurses Association. The database collects and evaluates unit-specific nurse-sensitive data from hospitals in the United States.

Participating facilities receive unit-level comparative data reports to use for quality improvement purposes. Roswell has participated in this database since 2004 and submits data on patient falls, pressure ulcers, pain management, restraint use, staff mix, nursing care hours per patient day, RN Education and Certification and participates in an annual RN Satisfaction Survey.

National Quality Forum

The National Quality Forum (NQF) is a not-for-profit organization created to develop and implement a national strategy for health care quality measurement and reporting.

The specific goals of NQF are to: Promote collaborative efforts to improve the quality of the nation's healthcare through performance measurement and public reporting; develop a national strategy for measuring and reporting healthcare quality; standardize healthcare performance measures so that comparable data is available across the nation; promote consumer understanding and use of healthcare performance measures and other quality information; and promote and encourage the enhancement of system capacity to evaluate and report on healthcare quality.

Pay for Performance

P4P is an abbreviation of the term Pay for Performance. P4P is being used within the healthcare industry as a model to reward healthcare providers who have better outcomes than those who don't. This payment model rewards hospitals and other healthcare providers for meeting certain performance measures for quality and efficiency. Roswell Park has been a leader in Pay for Performance Quality Initiatives since 2003.

Press Ganey Patient Satisfaction

Press Ganey provides solutions for measuring and managing quality. Press Ganey is a vendor which we utilize to measure patient satisfaction. Over one-third of US hospitals currently use Press Ganey for patient satisfaction measurement and improvement services.

Press Ganey has a national database of comparative satisfaction information which allows us to benchmark our results with our peers.

Roswell has been using Press Ganey for patient satisfaction benchmarking since 2004.

VHA

VHA is dedicated to the success of health care by delivering industry-leading supply chain management services and facilitating the development of networks that bring members together to solve key clinical and operational challenges. VHA's clinical performance improvement programs are designed to extend your organization's knowledge, processes, and resources, driving sustainable results.  Roswell is involved in the Transformation of the ICU (TICU) and Transformation of the Operating Room (TOR) clinical performance improvement projects.

• 3,432 employees, including 332 faculty members and 668 nurses
• Hospital Admissions: 5,068
• Outpatient Visits: 248,670
• Patients Under Active Care: 39,089
• Patient Origin: 44 U.S. states, 1 foreign country
• Number of Beds: 133
• Average Length of Stay: 7.6 days
• Grants/Contracts: $86 million
• Funded Research Projects: 573
• Academic Affiliation: State University of New York at Buffalo
• License Agreements: 97
• U.S. Patents: 65

(Figures current as of Fiscal Year 2018)

Seals of Approval

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is a member of several prestigious organizations.

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is the only upstate New York facility to hold the National Cancer Institute designation of "Comprehensive Cancer Center" and one of 49 such centers in the United States. This designation means that a cancer center's combined research, treatment and educational programs have weathered extensive peer review, met rigorous national standards, and made fundamental contributions to reducing the cancer burden.

Since 1974 Roswell Park has been recognized by the NCI as a Comprehensive Cancer Center. It was the nation's first, has served as a national model and is the only one in Upstate New York.

Roswell Park is also a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), an alliance of the nation's leading cancer centers. A not-for-profit organization, the NCCN brings together the best minds in science to engineer continuous quality improvements in cancer care; improves the effectiveness of cancer care delivery through the ongoing collection and analysis of outcome data on a national basis; enhances communications and collaboration among member institutions; offers access to the latest, most promising clinical trials; and provides best practice guidelines and measurement tools.

Roswell Park has achieved accreditation from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) as a result of its demonstrated compliance with the Joint Commission's nationally recognized health care standards.

Accreditations, Certifications & Membership

Roswell Park holds accreditations or certifications from many organizations, including:

• Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education
• Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education – for Medical and Surgical Oncology Training Programs
• American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Center of Excellence
• American Dental Association – Dentistry and Maxillofacial Prosthetics
• Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs
• Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International (AAALAC International)
• American Association of Blood Banks (AABB)
• Blue Distinction Center for Cancer Care
• Blue Distinction Center for Transplants
• Cancer Immunotherapy Trials Network Member (CITN)
• Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons
• Forbes Best Employers for Diversity 
• Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT)
• Lung Cancer Alliance Screening Center of Excellence
• National Accreditstion Program for Breast Cancers (NAPBC)
• National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center
• National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN)
• National Marrow Donor Program
• New York State Department of Health
• Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI) Certification from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
• The Joint Commission
• The Joint Commission Certification for Palliative Care
• The Joint Commission Laboratory Accreditation

Phone numbers

General Information / Cancer Information: 1-800-ROSWELL (1-800-767-9355)
Switchboard / Patient Information: 716-845-2300
Resource Center for Patients and Families: 716-845-8659 for cancer-related information and support

Analytical reviews and oncology news by K. Mokanov: clinical pharmacist and professional medical translator