St. Tammany Parish Hospital has been granted a three-year/full accreditation designation by the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC), a program administered by the American College of Surgeons. Accreditation by the NAPBC is only given to those programs that have voluntarily committed to provide the highest level of quality of care for those with diseases of the breast, including breast cancer, and that undergo a rigorous evaluation process and review of their performance. STPH is one of only five breast programs in the state of Louisiana to be designated by NAPBC.
“Receiving care at a NAPBC-accredited hospital ensures that a patient will have access to comprehensive care,” said Greg Henkelmann, MD, radiation oncologist and chair of the breast program leadership team. “This includes a full range of state-of-the-art services, a multidisciplinary team approach to coordinate the best treatment options, information about ongoing clinical trials and new treatment options, and most importantly, breast care close to home. This accreditation is an important step in our desire to become the destination of choice for breast care on the Northshore.”
During the survey process, the program must demonstrate compliance with standards established by the NAPBC for treating women who are diagnosed with the full spectrum of both benign and cancerous breast disease. The standards include proficiency in the areas of program leadership, clinical management, research, community outreach, professional education, and quality improvement. A breast program that achieves NAPBC accreditation has demonstrated a firm commitment to offer its patients every significant advantage in their battle against breast disease.
The American Cancer Society (ACS) estimated that there would be 252,710 women and 2,470 men diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in the United States in 2018. In addition, over 63,000 new cases of in situ lesions of the breast were expected to be diagnosed, and hundreds of thousands of women who will deal with benign breast disease this year will require medical evaluation for treatment options.