Community Healthcare System hospitals have received the designation as a Care Continuum Center of Excellence for Lung Cancer by the GO2 Foundation.
The GO2 Foundation formed the Care Continuum Centers of Excellence program to provide patient access to standard of care lung cancer screening, early detection, diagnosis, treatment and survivorship in their local community.
The designation for Community Hospital, Munster; St. Catherine Hospital, East Chicago; and St. Mary Medical Center, Hobart, recognizes the hospitals’ commitment to improving outcomes for those diagnosed with lung cancer by delivering patient-focused and coordinated care from a multidisciplinary healthcare team, system officials said.
“We are proud and honored to be working with Community Healthcare System as a GO2 Foundation Care Continuum Center of Excellence,” said Laurie Fenton Ambrose, co-founder, president and CEO of GO2 Foundation.
“Their commitment will help save lives and improve long-term survivorship by giving patients access to high-quality, multidisciplinary care closer to home.”
The CCCOE program recognizes community hospitals, which meet rigorous qualifying criteria and demonstrates collaborative leadership across the lung cancer care continuum to ensure the highest quality of care with a patient-centered approach.
“The hospitals of Community Healthcare System continue to raise the quality of healthcare and patient safety in Northwest Indiana,” said Donald Fesko, president and CEO, Community Foundation of Northwest Indiana Inc., parent company to the hospitals. “This designation as a care center of excellence is a validation of our efforts to adopt the best practices in medicine which measures up to the top hospitals in the country.”
The multidisciplinary care model includes: early screening and nodule follow-up programs, tumor genetic testing to set up appropriate treatment plans, access to clinical trials, minimally invasive biopsy, surgical and radiation therapy techniques, access to new targeted therapies and immunotherapies, physical therapy and extensive patient education and support through lung cancer care navigators. The CCCOE approach results in patients receiving timely care, as well as treatment options and support groups that improve survival.
