Adventist HealthCare Hospitals Receive 2025 Kimberly Stern Case Completeness Award
Gaithersburg, MD – Montgomery County-based Adventist HealthCare hospitals Shady Grove Medical Center in Rockville, MD, and White Oak Medical Center in Silver Spring, MD, received the Kimberly Stern Case Completeness Award from the Maryland Cancer Registry for meeting case reporting guidelines. This is the third time Shady Grove Medical Center has won the award and the second for White Oak Medical Center.
The Kimberly Stern Case Completeness Award was created to honor the Maryland Cancer Registry’s late program manager, Kimberly Stern. The annual award highlights the hospitals who have met specific case reporting guidelines, including having greater than 90% of reportable cases submitted to state of Maryland within nine months of the date they first had contact with a patient.
The information is submitted to the Maryland Cancer Registry to track the number of cancer diagnoses and treatments within the state and then is sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for national reporting.
The data is highly detailed and provides information about the type of cancer, its staging, the treatments given and geographical location. This is used to help identify priority cancers and areas that are experiencing higher incidences of cancer, including late-stage diagnosis.
"Submitting this data allows us to better serve the population within our community, and at a state and national level," said Kashif Firozvi, MD, medical director of cancer services at Adventist HealthCare. "More specifically, the data helps monitor cancer trends and incidences noting how often cancer occurs and in which populations, assists in guiding public health campaigns regarding cancer awareness and prevention, guides research direction and helps to allocate cancer resources to communities."
Adventist HealthCare has a team of four cancer registrars who support 2,000 new patients a year between Shady Grove Medical Center and White Oak Medical Center.
"We are incredibly proud of the work of the cancer registry team at Adventist HealthCare," said Tiffany Horvath, associate vice president, cancer services at Adventist HealthCare. "The data they compile and provide not only informs cancer care at a state and national level, but this data helps form strategic initiatives and programmatic needs like offering specific cancer types and wellness programs. Allowing us to better serve our patient population."
Adventist HealthCare is two of 11 hospitals within the state to be presented this prestigious award.
