Baptist Health Paducah earns its 10th consecutive ACR Accreditation in radiation therapy
PADUCAH, KY (Sept. 17, 2024) — Baptist Health Paducah has been awarded their 10th consecutive three-year term of accreditation in radiation oncology as the result of a recent review by the American College of Radiology® (ACR®). Baptist Health Paducah was the first accredited facility in the Commonwealth to receive accreditation by the ACR. Radiation oncology (radiation therapy) is the careful use of high-energy radiation to treat cancer. A radiation oncologist may use radiation to cure cancer or to relieve a cancer patient’s pain.
Baptist Health Paducah is the only hospital in Paducah to offer comprehensive radiation therapy. Peter Locken, MD and Raymond Wynn, MD, are radiation oncologists with Baptist Health Medical Group Radiation Oncology who treat patients in the hospital’s Earl Feezor Radiation Oncology Department located inside the Ray & Kay Eckstein Regional Cancer Care Center.
“Here at the Ray & Kay Eckstein Regional Cancer Center at Baptist Health Paducah, we have a very comprehensive range of oncology services, really much more sophisticated than you would expect for a community of our size. The oncology world has national standards for each type of malignancy, whether it’s breast cancer, prostate cancer or lung cancer,” Locken said. “As an accredited center, we follow those guidelines so people can feel that they’re getting the national standard of care but do it in their community surrounded by their family and loved ones.”
The ACR is the nation’s oldest and most widely accepted radiation oncology accrediting body, with over 700 accredited sites, and 30 years of accreditation experience. The ACR gold seal of accreditation represents the highest level of quality and patient safety. It is awarded only to facilities meeting specific requirements, based on practice guidelines and technical standards developed by ACR after a peer-review evaluation by board-certified radiation oncologists and medical physicists who are experts in the field. Patient care and treatment, patient safety, personnel qualifications, adequacy of facility equipment, quality control procedures, and quality assurance programs are assessed.
To find out more about radiation oncology at Baptist Health Paducah, visit BaptistHealth.com/Paducah.