Dr. Kathleen Jeffery | St. Mary's Health Care System
Dr. Kathleen Jeffery | St. Mary's Health Care System
“With this accreditation, our breast health center becomes the first and only dual-accredited breast center in the region,” said Dr. Kathleen Jeffery, breast surgeon and the center’s medical director.
In addition to its NAPBC accreditation, St. Mary’s Breast Health Center is also certified under the National Quality Measures for Breast CentersTM (NQMBC) program, a service of the National Consortium of Breast Centers.
“I am extremely proud of our team and the multidisciplinary partners we have brought together,” Dr. Jeffery added. “We love our patients and are working together to provide the best possible care for people with breast cancer.”
To achieve voluntary NAPBC accreditation, a breast center demonstrates compliance with the NAPBC standards that address a center’s leadership, clinical services, research, community outreach, professional education, and quality improvement for patients. Breast centers seeking NAPBC accreditation undergo a site visit every three years.
As a NAPBC-accredited center, St. Mary’s Breast Health Center is committed to maintaining evidence-based levels of excellence in the delivery of comprehensive, patient-centered, multidisciplinary care that results in high-quality care for patients with breast disease. Patients can be confident that their breast care team includes health care professionals from a variety of disciplines who are committed to working together to provide the best care available through their entire course of treatment.
Patients receiving care at St. Mary’s Breast Health Center and other NAPBC-accredited centers also have access to information on clinical trials and new treatment options, genetic counseling, and patient-centered services including psychosocial support, rehabilitation services, and survivorship care.
“Our patients expect and deserve top-quality care,” Dr. Jeffery said. “That’s why we have voluntarily sought and received NAPBC accreditation and also NQMBC certification. The bottom line is that these quality assurance programs ensure that we’re providing the absolute best care possible to our patients with breast cancer.”
“Over the last two years, Dr. Jeffery has worked to enhance our breast health program, elevating the foundation of quality and service that has always existed at St. Mary’s,” said David Spivey, interim president and CEO of St. Mary’s Health Care System. “Patients absolutely adore her and trust her because of her expertise but also because she’s a personable, honest and compassionate physician and human being. We are so proud to have her on our team.”
Accreditation by the NAPBC is granted only to those programs that are committed to providing the best possible care to patients with breast cancer. The NAPBC provides the structure and information resources needed to develop and operate a high-quality breast center and accredited program. Patients receiving care at this NAPBC-accredited center have access to:
comprehensive care, including a full range of state-of-the-art services
a multidisciplinary team approach to coordinate the best treatment options
information about ongoing clinical trials and new treatment options
St. Mary’s Breast Health Center provides comprehensive and compassionate services for women and men at any stage of breast cancer. Services include screening and diagnostic imaging, prevention counseling, high-risk counseling, genetic counseling and testing, and medical, radiographic and surgical treatments. Dr. Jeffery is the first female surgeon in our region exclusively focused on breast health. The center is located in the Resource Medical Park, 1500 Oglethorpe Ave., Athens. Due to a water line break in the December freeze, Dr. Jeffery and certified breast nurse navigator Laura Childs are currently seeing office patients in a temporary clinic located behind St. Mary’s Hospital at 1230 Baxter Street, Athens.
Original source can be found here.
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