Willis-Knighton Cancer Center has been awarded a three-year term of accreditation in radiation oncology following a review by the American College of Radiology (ACR). Radiation oncology (radiation therapy) is the careful use of high-energy radiation to treat cancer. A radiation oncologist may use radiation to cure cancer or to relieve a cancer patient’s pain.

Willis-Knighton Cancer Center has committed to multiple accreditations to help assure patients that they are receiving the highest standards of radiation therapy care. In addition to this ACR accreditation, awarded by the nation’s oldest and most widely accepted radiation oncology accrediting body, the cancer center is also accredited by the American College of Radiation Oncology and is among a select group of cancer centers that maintains this dual accreditation. 

The center’s comprehensive accreditation is awarded by the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer as a Community Hospital Community Cancer Program.

This most recent re-accreditation by ACR cites the center’s conformity to ACR’s guidelines and technical standards developed by board certified radiation oncologists and medical physicists. Patient care and treatment, patient safety, personnel qualifications, adequacy of facility equipment, quality control procedures, and quality assurance programs are assessed. The findings are reported to the ACR Committee on Radiation Oncology Accreditation, which subsequently provides the center with a comprehensive report to use for continuous practice improvement. 

The ACR is a national professional organization serving more than 36,000 diagnostic/interventional radiologists, radiation oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians, and medical physicists with programs focusing on the practice of medical imaging and radiation oncology and the delivery of comprehensive health care services.