2010 Role of the Cancer Registry

Hospitals and many other healthcare facilities are required by the National Program of Cancer Registries Act and state statutes to report cancer cases to state cancer registries. In Florida, the state cancer registry is the Florida Cancer Data System (FCDS), located by contract at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. In addition, facilities with cancer programs approved by the Commission on Cancer (CoC) agree to report analytic cases to the National Cancer Database jointly sponsored by the American College of Surgeons and the American Cancer Society. Data reported on cancer cases include demographic, diagnosis, staging, treatment and outcomes information.

The role of Cancer Registry is multifaceted. The Cancer Registry is responsible for abstracting all analytical cases. Abstracting is reviewing the patients' entire medical record and entering all the pertinent information about the patient, cancer diagnosis, treatment and patient follow up as required following strict guidelines published by FCDS and the CoC into an electronic registry system.

The Cancer Registry can manipulate this data to provide analyses for hospital administration, physicians and hospital staff when requested. The data is useful for facilities to identify trends among their own cancer patient populations and usage of clinical services. The data is useful for physicians to determine best treatment modalities for a specific cancer site. Because the data collection guidelines are standardized for cancer registries across the state and the nation, the cancer experience at MMH can be compared to the care and modalities of treatment of other facilities in the state and country.

The Cancer Registry also supports the MMH Cancer Program by organizing and staffing Cancer Conferences and the Oncology Committee. The Cancer Conference is a multidisciplinary and multispeciality group of physicians that meets bi-monthly to review concurrent patients diagnosed with cancer to determine the best method of treatment for the specific cancer site. The Breast Cancer Conference meets monthly. It is organized like the Cancer Conference, but strictly focused on breast cancer patients.

The Oncology Committee is a multidisciplinary and multispeciality group of physicians, administrators and staff that directs and oversees the Cancer Program. This Committee ensures that the Cancer Program is meeting the CoC standards; improves care directed to our cancer patients; provides education to the community, physicians, and hospital staff concerning prevention and treatment of cancer; and provides direction to market our services.

Many thanks to the Health Information Management staff who have provided many hours of support to the Cancer Registry completing the follow-up on our cancer patients. With their support, the Cancer Program has maintained the standard required by the CoC for 80% follow-up rate on all patients and 90% follow-up rate on patients diagnosed in the last five years.

This 2010 Cancer Report was produced by the Cancer Registry and the Marketing Department at Manatee Memorial Hospital.