Baptist Cancer Program - Baptist Memorial Health Care

Baptist Tumor Registry
Providing Quality Cancer Reporting Services
The State of Tennessee established the Tennessee Cancer Registry (TCR) in 1983 under the guidance of the
Department of Health in response to State Law (T.C.A 68-1-1001) that made cancer a reportable condition. In
May 2000, the Tennessee Legislature amended this law broadening its scope by expanding the number of
reporting sources, allowing access to medical records in the event data is not reported and providing for
interstate exchange of data.
In 1992, the 102 nd Congress passed a law allowing states to receive federal grants to support populationbased,
statewide cancer registries. The TCR has received federal funding from the Centers of Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) through the National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) since 1997.
The TCR strives to collect comprehensive, timely and accurate information on all Tennessee residents
diagnosed with and/or treated for cancer. To capture all this data, all hospitals, ambulatory surgi-centers,
freestanding cancer centers, radiation therapy centers, chemotherapy treatment centers, nursing homes,
oncology or dermatology clinics, laboratories, or any facility which provides screening, detection,
diagnostic or therapeutic services to cancer patient is required to report to the TCR.
In keeping with State Law, Baptist provides Tumor Registry services for reporting cases for Baptist
Memphis, Baptist Womens and Baptist Collierville campuses. The Baptist Tumor Registry is a repository of
data on the incidence of cancers and tumor characteristics, treatment and treatment outcomes of patients
diagnosed with cancer.
As part of its accreditation requirement, the Baptist Cancer Program also reports its cancer data to the
National Cancer Data Base (NCDB), a joint program of the Commission on Cancer (CoC) of the American
College of Surgeons (ACoS) and the American Cancer Society (ACS). NCDB is a nationwide oncology
outcomes database for more than 1,500 accredited cancer programs in the United States and Puerto Rico.
With new cancer program standards on the horizon for 2012 requiring credentialing of its Tumor Registry
staff, Baptist conducted a vigorous search for a Certified Tumor Registrar (CTR) for its Manager position. In
May 2010 the new CTR Manager commenced work and began an extensive assessment of the department
and its staffing. With all staff now required to become CTRs, an all out effort was launched to begin retraining
and direct efforts toward credentialing of all staff. All staff is expected to be enrolled in a formal
Cancer Information Management Program by January 2011.
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