The oncology services at Nash Health Care were honored with an Outstanding Achievement Award by the Commission on Cancer (CoC), making it one of only 93 programs in the country -and one of only four in North Carolina --- to earn such an honor. Oncology services at Nash Health Care encompasses every aspect of cancer treatment, including the Nash Cancer Treatment Center, the Nash General Hospital oncology unit, the tumor registry, and Hospice and Palliative Care.

The achievement award comes on the heels of a three-year accreditation with 9 commendations from the American College of Surgeons, ranking the cancer services at Nash Health Care among the top 5 percent in the nation.

Established in 2004, the CoC Outstanding Achievement Award (OAA) is designed to recognize cancer programs that strive for excellence in providing quality care to cancer patients. A facility receives the award following the on-site evaluation by a physician surveyor. The facility must demonstrate outstanding achievement in six areas: cancer committee leadership, cancer data management, clinical services, research, community outreach, and quality improvement.

"Earning accreditation from the Commission on Cancer is an honor, but to earn the Outstanding Achievement Award is truly a testimony that our doctors and health care employees go above and beyond the call of duty to provide superior care for our patients," said Sandra Todd-Atkinson, senior vice president of specialty hospitals. "Members of our community can be confident that one of the best cancer care centers in the country is caring for their neighbors, friends and family members who are battling cancer. Superior health care just about state-of-the-art technology-it's about compassion, education, and excellence."

The  Nash Cancer Treatment Center offers intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), which is one of the latest advances in radiation therapy. IMRT allows doctors to send a higher dose of radiation to a tumor while protecting healthy tissue. Nash Day Hospital has also added digital mammography and a permanently housed PET scanner. This sophisticated technology will help local residents go from being cancer patients to cancer survivors.