The Concept of Center of Excellence

Center of Excellence
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September 27, 2020
Introduction
A center of excellence (COE), while not possessed with a clear-cut and uniform definition across the healthcare industry, is understood to be a specific package of services outstanding in quality focused on treating a specific disease (Elrod & Fortenberry, Jr., 2017). Hospitals and other healthcare institutions develop COEs to intensify clinical care measures and strategies specific to certain sicknesses or ailments. This process of increased attention to healthcare processes is marked by an increased rate in research, higher and more demanding baseline expertise for handling physicians, and the adoption of multiple integration strategies to better improve the quality of the COE services.
The concept of a Center of Excellence
As mentioned earlier, the COE, as of now, does not have a rigid definition. Some healthcare institutions may adopt the term for mere marketing purposes and to gain clout for the services they offer, while others adhere to rigid standards in order for it to take on the term COE while avoiding public criticism and backlash (Elrod & Fortenberry, Jr., 2017). One of the specific fields of medicine that has standardized tests to earn the title of a COE is bariatric surgery.
Two accrediting bodies, the Surgical Review Corporation (SRC) and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), have collaborated to create an accrediting program with standardized tests aimed at determining institutions providing excellent-quality bariatric surgery services (Pratt & Greer-Ullrich, 2009). Institutions that pass these tests gain accreditation as ASMBS Bariatric Surgery Centers of Excellence (BSCOE).
While the tests to determine a COE have ripened and solidified in some healthcare fields, sadly, such progress is not present all across the board. However, this does not mean that all hope for a median in determining a COE quality is lost. Reference may be made to tests already put in place, such as those administered for BSCOEs, to determine the particular quality of healthcare services provided in other institutions from other fields.
For example, the BSCOE accreditation implements a rigorous and challenging assessment program not only focused on the hospital but also the surgeons themselves. This translates not only to an assessment and analysis of hospital records, logistics, facilities, site inspections, interviews with staff and key personnel, but also individual tests for each medical professional. BSCOE accreditation involves a thorough examination of the surgeon's education and commitment (Pratt & Greer-Ullrich, 2009). Individually, the examiners measure each surgeon's capacity to perform and their loyalty and commitment to the applicant's COE. It also measures their competence concerning contemporary developments, including up-to-date techniques and instruments in the field of bariatric surgery. (Pratt & Greer-Ullrich, 2009)
Distilling the essence of BSCOE accreditation highlights two essential factors that must be considered before labeling a specific institution as a COE: (1) institutional quality; and (2) individual quality. On the one hand, institutional quality is based on the quality of in-hospital facilities, the competency of administrative and other assistive staff, hospital logistics, the completeness of medical records, and other factors related to the operations of the hospital. On the other hand, individual quality is the education, competence, and loyalty of the institution's physicians and their ability to stay informed with the latest developments in their profession. It includes an intellectual analysis, focused on the medical professional's capability and moral and emotional standing with the institution itself.
Houston International Cancer Treatment Center
Taking these two-fold factors of a COE in mind, the author's analysis now turns to create his new COE, named Houston International Cancer Treatment Center (HICTC). This hospital has a 2,264-bed capacity hospital established in 1919 in Houston, Texas.
The COE, in this case, designates itself as an academic medical Centre. This designation is reflected in its many wings, confined to clinical care and extensive research and capacity-building. HICTC has a research institute and an institute for technology, innovation, education housing, a virtual hospital, and surgical training centers, all the while providing physician education and surgical training following the latest technologies and techniques. The HICTC itself has consistently appeared on the best hospitals in the U.S. News & World Report.
The HICTC COE, notably, has also garnered a reputation for excellence. The U.S. News & World Report for 2020-2021 has designated HICTC as a top-leading hospital in the nation to treat cancer. This paper will analyze the organization and operation of the HICTC COE, and discuss its findings as to whether the COE truly embodies qualities distinct of a COE concerning the BSCOE accreditation, and if the answer is yes, what are the possible reasons and causes for such quality and excellence.
Services offered
The HICTC COE offers a wide range of services specifically focused on treating the many forms of cancer, such as breast, cervical, colon and rectal, uterine, skin, prostate, lung, and ovarian cancer. The services it offers covers the whole spectrum of cancer treatment, from screening, genetic counseling for patients at high risk of developing cancer, diagnostic biopsies, tumor removals, debulking, palliative and reconstructive surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, immunotherapy, bone marrow transplantation and targeted therapy.
Geographic location and Chief Demographic
The HICTC operates out of locations in Houston, Nassau Bay, Sugar Land, and The Woodlands. In Texas alone, there were 129,770 estimated new cases of cancer in 2020. Estimated deaths reached a count of 41,810. Thus, these statistics paint a stark picture of cancer's relentlessness and continuance as a sickness among Americans, particularly Texans. (American Cancer Society, 2020)
From 2012 to 2016, there was an estimated 407.7 average annual incident rate of cancer patients per 100,000 people. From 2013 to 2017, there were an estimated 151.3 average annual mortality rates among cancer patients in Texas. The average annual incident rate was composed mostly of breast cancer among females, consisting of an average annual number of 111.9 women developing breast cancer, while the second leading type of cancer was prostate cancer at an av...