The Cancer Treatment Center at Wenatchee Valley Medical Center has been rated one of the nation’s top cancer treatment facilities by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC). The Outstanding Achievement Award recognizes WVMC for meeting the highest standards in important areas of patient care.

“I am honored to work with a team that can accomplish so much,” said WVMC’s Cancer Care Area Manager Mary Gunkel. “We have an excellent Cancer Program, and this is a wonderful recognition of that.”

WVMC is one of 93 facilities across the United States to receive the CoC’s Outstanding Achievement Award, which represents approximately 19 percent of the 478 cancer care programs evaluated in 2008. In addition, WVMC was one of 20 sites to earn the honor as a new program.

The on-site evaluation found WVMC’s cancer program provides quality care to cancer patients by meeting high standards in six important areas:

• Cancer committee leadership
• Data management
• Clinical services
• Research
• Community outreach
• Quality improvement

Some of the services offered at WVMC's Cancer Treatment Center include providing state-of-the-art pre-treatment evaluation, staging, treatment and clinical follow-up for cancer patients. A Cancer Committee Team, made up of physicians, nurses and other medical staff from different departments leads the cancer program by setting goals, monitoring cancer related activity and evaluating patient outcomes to improve patient care. Weekly clinical cancer conferences provide a forum for patient consultation and contribute to physician and staff education. WVMC also maintains an ongoing quality improvement program, cancer registry and database to help monitor quality of care and cancer statistics.