CTR Registry Operations & Management 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which accreditation body sets standards for hospital-based cancer registries in the United States?
- American College of Surgeons (ACoS) Commission on Cancer (Correct answer)
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
- Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)
- National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Correct answer: American College of Surgeons (ACoS) Commission on Cancer
The American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC) establishes standards for hospital cancer programs, including registry operations.
Question 2: When a cancer registry receives a casefinding audit, what is the primary goal of the audit?
- To verify that all reportable cases have been identified and abstracted (Correct answer)
- To assess the timeliness of data submissions to the state registry
- To evaluate the accuracy of staging information
- To review staff credentialing and training records
Correct answer: To verify that all reportable cases have been identified and abstracted
Casefinding audits assess completeness by verifying that every reportable case from all source documents has been captured by the registry.
Question 3: A tumor registrar notices that the same patient has been abstracted twice under two different medical record numbers. This is an example of:
- A duplicate record (Correct answer)
- An incomplete abstract
- A casefinding error
- A coding discrepancy
Correct answer: A duplicate record
Duplicate records occur when the same patient is entered more than once in the registry, often due to multiple medical record numbers or facility visits.
Question 4: Which document serves as the primary source for verifying reportability and completeness in a hospital tumor registry?
- Pathology report (Correct answer)
- Discharge summary
- Radiology report
- Operative report
Correct answer: Pathology report
The pathology report is the gold-standard primary source for confirming diagnosis, histology, and reportability of a cancer case.
Question 5: Under HIPAA, a cancer registry may share patient data for public health purposes without patient authorization when:
- Reporting to a state or local health authority as required by law (Correct answer)
- Sharing with a pharmaceutical company for drug research
- Sending data to an insurance company for billing
- Publishing individual patient details in a medical journal
Correct answer: Reporting to a state or local health authority as required by law
HIPAA's public health exception permits disclosure to authorized public health authorities such as state cancer registries without individual patient authorization.
Question 6: The annual analytic case rate is calculated by dividing the number of analytic cases by:
- Total cases abstracted that year, multiplied by 100 (Correct answer)
- Number of reportable cases received from outside facilities
- Total inpatient discharges
- Number of new staff trained that year
Correct answer: Total cases abstracted that year, multiplied by 100
The analytic case rate expresses the proportion of analytic cases among all abstracted cases, supporting program benchmarking.
Question 7: What is the purpose of a 'suspense file' in cancer registry operations?
- To hold cases with incomplete information pending follow-up (Correct answer)
- To store cases that have been deleted from the database
- To archive cases older than five years
- To flag cases requiring physician review for staging
Correct answer: To hold cases with incomplete information pending follow-up
A suspense file (or pending file) temporarily holds cases lacking sufficient information to complete the abstract until the missing data is obtained.
CTR Registry Operations & Management 2
Which accreditation body sets standards for hospital-based cancer registries in the United States?