Schneck Medical Center’s Don and Dana Myers Cancer Center recently received the 2016 Outstanding Achievement Award by the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons.

The center is one of a group of 20 U.S. accredited cancer programs to receive this national honor for surveys performed Jan. 1 through June 30, according to a news release from the Seymour hospital.

The purpose of the award is to encourage cancer programs to raise the bar on quality cancer care, with the ultimate goal of increasing awareness about high-quality, patient-centered care. In addition, the award is intended to:

• Recognize those cancer programs that achieve excellence meeting the commission’s standards
• Motivate other cancer programs to work toward improving their level of quality cancer care
• Facilitate dialogue between award recipients and health care professionals at other cancer facilities for the purpose of sharing best practices
• Encourage honorees to serve as quality-care resources to other cancer programs

Schneck’s cancer program was evaluated on 34 program standards categorized within five cancer program activity areas — cancer committee leadership, cancer data management, clinical services, patient outcomes and data quality. The cancer program was further evaluated on seven commendation standards.

To be eligible, all award recipients must have received commendation ratings in all seven commendation standards in addition to receiving a compliance rating for each of the 27 other standards.