The Commission on Cancer (CoC) New announced that they are wrapping up its project to review, revise and enhance the CoC standard for accreditation. These standards will go into effect January 1, 2020. You can find a copy of the draft minutes click here. The proposed date of finalization of the standards manual is Fall 2019.
The August 1, 2013 CoC Source announced that the new version of the CoC Program Standards will be delayed until late September. The CoC did detail some of the upcoming changes which include:
1. As of July 1, Standard 5.2 will be changed from abstracting timeliness to a new standard focused on Rapid Quality Reporting System (RQRS) participation. The RQRS standard will become effective on January 1, 2014, will be valid for commendation only, and will be part of the Outstanding Achievement Award criteria beginning in 2014.
Abstracting timeliness of 2011 cases will continue to be evaluated during the remaining 2013 surveys. Any deficiencies given for abstracting timeliness will be resolved by on-time submission of the 2012 cases to the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) in January 2014.
2. Immediately eliminate surveyor review of cases selected for one of the Cancer Program Practice Profile Reports (CP3R) measures during the on-site visit. The review may be reinstated by the Accreditation Committee when needed to validate new performance measures. Programs will be notified in advance if the review is reinstated.
3. Retire the 2009 Standards from the survey process beginning January 1, 2014. This change will not affect surveys performed during 2013 which will continue to review 2010 and 2011 activity using the old standards and 2012 using the new standards. For 2014 surveys, the Outstanding Achievement Award criteria will be adjusted to apply to activities in 2012 and 2013 using only Cancer Program Standards 2012: Ensuring Patient-Centered Care.
Development of the RQRS standard is now complete, and the Accreditation Committee will consider this change at the August 20 conference call meeting. Version 1.2 will be completed following this meeting and published online in late September. A special issue of The CoC Source will announce the release of Version 1.2.