Did you know…?

ONCO > Did you know…?

The Commission on Cancer’s follow-up standard has changed

According to the April 2022 updates to the CoC Standards, Standard 6.5:

An 80 percent follow-up rate is maintained for all eligible cases from the most current year of completed cases through 15 years before, or the program’s first accreditation date, whichever is shorter.

A 90 percent follow-up rate is maintained from the most current year of completed cases through five years before, or the program’s first accreditation date, whichever is shorter.

The updated Standard also defines the “most current year of completed cases” as cases diagnosed three years before the current calendar year. For example, in calendar year 2022, the window for long-term follow up would be cases diagnosed 2005–2019 (80 percent required). The window for short-term follow up is 2015–2019 (90 percent required).

Since these changes were made, we have received several questions regarding lower compliance scores from facilities that have upgraded to ONCOLog v4.7.0 which includes the new follow-up criteria. The drop in facility follow-up performance is expected based on these new definitions. In the denominator, you are losing (1) cases older than 15 years from the calculations  – many of which would be expired, and (2) cases from the most recent 3 years – which would most likely have current follow-up if they were included. This leaves cases from years with the highest percentage of lost cases in the denominator, which will directly impact a facility’s follow-up performance.