Pictured: Joseph Carmichael, MD, chief medical officer at UCI Medical Center.
UCI Health has earned the National Accreditation Program for Rectal Cancer (NAPRC) designation, becoming one of only 45 rectal cancer programs in the nation and the first in Orange County to hold this classification.
To achieve this voluntary three-year accreditation from NAPRC, a quality assurance program established by the American College of Surgeons, UCI Health was able to demonstrate compliance with standards addressing program management, clinical services and quality improvement for patients, as well as create a multidisciplinary rectal cancer team that includes clinical representatives from surgery, pathology, radiology, radiation oncology and medical oncology.
“This accreditation is a rigorous process that only a handful of health systems in California have achieved,” said Dr. Joseph Carmichael, UCI Health chief medical officer and board-certified colorectal surgeon. “I’m extremely proud of all the hard work the rectal cancer team has done to ensure we are providing the best care to our patients.”
Additionally, the UCI Health program meets standards addressing the clinical services that the rectal cancer program provides, including carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA testing), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computerized tomography (CT) imaging for cancer staging, which allows patients to start treatment within a defined timeframe. Rectal cancer programs accredited by the NAPRC undergo a site visit every three years and are also accredited by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer.
The NAPRC provides the structure and resources to develop and operate a high-quality rectal center. Accredited programs follow NAPRC's model for organizing and managing a rectal center to ensure multidisciplinary, integrated and comprehensive rectal cancer services.