Quality Improvements of Veterans Health Administration Radiation Oncology Services Through Partnership for Accreditation With the ACR

Approximately 20,000 US veterans receive radiation oncology services at a Veterans Healthcare Administration (VHA) medical facility each year. They currently have access to advanced technologies, which include image-guided intensity-modulated radiotherapy, stereotactic radiosurgery, and stereotactic body radiation therapy. Although this provides access to cancer therapies that are modern, safe, and efficient, the technical complexities of these treatments and clinical decision making that goes into the patient selection and prescriptions demand quality assurances at each VHA practice. To meet the challenges of this need, the VHA established a partnership in 2008 with the ACR's Radiation Oncology Practice Accreditation Program (ACR-ROPA). This report summarizes the experience of this ongoing partnership and demonstrates the combined impact of the VHA's mandate for ACR-ROPA accreditation and internal monitoring of all identified corrective actions at each of its radiation oncology practices.