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Comprehensive Cancer Care Services

ACCC offers comprehensive cancer care resources that elevate the delivery of multidisciplinary treatment throughout all stages of the cancer care journey. Cancer care services that address the full spectrum of a patient’s needs—physical, nutritional, emotional, psychosocial, spiritual, and financial—have been found to greatly improve survivor’s quality of life and outcomes.

Empowering and providing support to family and caregivers can help relieve the stress and anxiety of a cancer diagnosis, which improves the physical and mental health of both patients and caregivers. Patient navigators can positively impact a patient’s overall treatment experience by making it more efficient, coordinated, and individually focused. And whether patients are recently diagnosed or have been undergoing cancer treatment for some time, those who create a comprehensive cancer care plan, are educated about their healthcare needs, and are involved in treatment decision-making have better outcomes.

Oncology patients who are diagnosed between the ages of 15 to 39 often face delays in diagnosis, social and emotional issues, communication challenges with providers, and financial concerns.

4R Care Sequences® are guideline-based care plans providers can use with their patients as a framework to support equitable and comprehensive care from diagnosis through survivorship. They are available to members at no cost.

People who care for family members or friends diagnosed with cancer often experience caregiver burden. To help alleviate this burden, caregivers should be considered as crucial members of the cancer care team.

As the number of Americans age 65 and older continues to increase, researchers estimate that 70 percent of cancers will be diagnosed in older adults by 2030.

ACCC worked with subject matter experts to develop a series of seven discipline-specific business briefs to justify hiring the staff necessary to provide comprehensive cancer care services. These business case briefs aim to show how critical these care team members are to improving the quality of care, enhancing the patient experience, supporting their colleagues, and reducing costs.

Proactively integrating nutrition services into cancer care can improve patient outcomes and quality of life, both during and after treatment.

ACCC offers member-driven resources, including blog posts and journal articles, to help implement, assess, and expand patient navigation services.

Although an important aspect of cancer care, a patient’s psychosocial health needs are often left unmet. ACCC is seeking to help establish guidelines and accreditation standards for distress screening programs so they can become more universally integrated into patient treatment plans.

ACCC seeks to enhance the patient experience by offering members valuable resources to incorporate shared-decision making tools and models across their programs and practices.

ACCC provides the latest resources to ensure providers are integrating survivorship care plans into the continuum of care. This important aspect of the cancer journey is designed to meet the lifelong needs of those who have been diagnosed with cancer.

Comprehensive Cancer Care Services Matrix

Realizing the compelling need to better understand the current capacity and barriers to delivery of essential comprehensive cancer care services in community-based oncology programs, the Board of Trustees of the Association of Community Cancer Centers called for and supporting a survey of invited or representative membership. Survey findings will be used to provide baseline information to guide policy, advocacy, educational initiatives, and inform value-based payment reform discussions.

Read this message from ACCC President 2019-2020 Ali McBride, PharmD, MS, BCOP: A Prescription for Sustainable Cancer Care Delivery.

In 2019 ACCC launched a national Comprehensive Cancer Care Services Survey, outcomes of which were used to develop this tiered matrix of recommendations that cancer practices and programs of varying sizes and resource levels can use to benchmark and advocate for service line growth. Provision of these key services can elevate patient care and the patient experience; reduce healthcare costs; improve care coordination; and help differentiate your cancer program in your marketplace. Now we would like to gather member feedback on these recommendations. Download the matrix, share it with your team, and submit feedback on these recommendations to matrix@accc-cancer.org.

Download Matrix Acknowledgements

Digital Tools

Ask Me 3® Communication Tool
Comprehensive Cancer Care Services Matrix
Financial Advocacy Playbook and Toolkit
Financial Advocacy Boot Camp
Geriatric Oncology Gap Assessment and Resource Library
Health Literacy Gap Assessment and Resource Library

Publications

From the ACCCBuzz Blog

LUNGevity Precision Medicine Summit: Improving Biomarker Testing
Molly Kisiel, MSN, FNP-BC
April 16, 2024
Advocating for a Better Future: The Role of a Unique Network
April 15, 2024
LUNGevity Health Equity Summit: A Focus on Biomarker Testing
April 11, 2024

From Oncology Issues

Collaborative Care: A Model for Embedding Counseling in Oncology and Palliative Care
By Earon Lehning

Embedding counseling services into oncology and palliative care across 6 clinic locations landed this program a 2023 ACCC Innovator Award. Learn how this model allows patients to receive psychosocial care from treatment through survivorship.
A Model for Demonstrating Sustainable Outreach for Cancer Screening
By Jamie Ries and Michael Gieske

Discover how St. Elizabeth Cancer Center launched a comprehensive program to perform outreach to patients with outstanding orders for lung, breast, and colon cancer screenings.
Multidisciplinary Approaches to Addressing the Needs of Patients with Gynecologic Cancers A Call-to-Action Summit

Highlights from an Association of Cancer Care Centers Gynecologic Oncology Summit in Chicago, Illinois, on September 27, 2023.

News & Media

Comprehensive Cancer Care Adds Value—the Challenge Is Paying for It, ACCC Survey Finds
AJMC, Mar 5, 2022

In Survivorship Care, Many Models for Communication and Value
AJMC, Mar 3, 2022

Statement on the Value of Oncology Advanced Practitioners
Jan 27, 2021

On-Demand Webinars

Podcasts

Navigating the Operational Challenges of Treatment with Bispecific Antibodies - [Podcast] Ep 148 Mar 28, 2024

Advancements in clinical data and research have shown the immunotherapeutic potential of bispecific antibodies as treatment for hematologic cancers and solid tumors. In this episode, CANCER BUZZ speaks with Aaron Cumpston, PharmD, pharmacy clinical specialist in hematologic malignancies and bone marrow transplant and Christine Barrett, PharmD, BCOP, medical oncology clinical pharmacy specialist at WVU Cancer Institute who discuss the challenges of care coordination and therapy and share operational best practices for the delivery of bispecific antibodies in the community setting.
Policy Perspectives on Biomarker Testing Coverage for 2024 – [Mini Podcast] Ep 147 Mar 26, 2024

In this episode, CANCER BUZZ speaks with Hilary Gee Goeckner, MSW, director of State and Local Campaigns for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ASC CAN), who shares policy perspectives and the latest on state legislation to expand coverage for biomarker testing for Medicaid beneficiaries.
Open Enrollment: Best Practices for End-of-Year Prep - [Mini Podcast] Ep 146 Mar 25, 2024

The ACCC Oncology Reimbursement Meetings (ORMs) help all members of the multidisciplinary cancer care team navigate the annual changes in oncology reimbursement and regulations— while improving their knowledge on effective strategies for success in an everchanging oncology landscape. In this episode, CANCER BUZZ speaks with Jordan Karwedsky, financial counselor, Green Bay Oncology, about her session at the ORMs last fall, where she discussed best practices cancer care teams can adopt as they prepare for the open enrollment season.
Developing a Disease-Site Specific Oncology Patient Navigation Program — [MINI PODCAST] EP 135 Oct 19, 2023

In 2020, this community-based cancer program started laying the foundation for a disease-site specific oncology patient navigation program that would grow exponentially over the next 2 years.
Precision Medicine: Robots, Biologics, and Advocates: Lessons from the Pharmacy— [MINI PODCAST] Ep 103 Feb 8, 2023
Andre Harvin teases his keynote at the ACCC 49th Annual Meeting and Cancer Center Business Summit, where he will talk about innovative solutions to streamline pharmacy operations that have saved his healthcare system millions of dollars. One of those innovative solutions—robotic pharmacists.
Financial Barriers to Oral Cancer Therapies — [Vodcast] Ep 19 Oct 19, 2022

Tune-in as our expert discusses how and when to screen patients, and then connect them to available resources to better support patients’ financial needs.
Patient Adherence to Oral Targeted Therapies — [VODCAST] Ep 18 Oct 6, 2022

In this episode, our experts examine challenges with oral anti-cancer therapies and provide methods to better support patients.
Addressing Challenges in Managing Patients Receiving Oral Therapies for HR+, HER2- Breast Cancer — [VODCAST] Ep 17 Sep 29, 2022

Hear how to educate patients and their caregivers about the risks and benefits to oral therapies for breast cancer.
Interventional Screening Tools for Malnutrition — [VIDEO PODCAST] Ep 16 Sep 22, 2022

Hear how malnutrition affects people with cancer in different ways, even impacting cancer treatment plans.
Malnutrition: Screen or Assess? — [VIDEO PODCAST] Ep 15 Sep 15, 2022

Hear how malnutrition affects people with cancer in different ways, even impacting cancer treatment plans.

More Podcasts

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In This Section

Comprehensive Cancer Care Services

Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Services

Care Action Plans for People with Cancer

Empowering Caregivers

Geriatric Oncology

Making the Case for New Staff

Nutrition

Patient Navigation

Psychosocial Care in Oncology

Shared Decision-Making

Survivorship Care