Accreditations Catawba Valley Medical Center is accredited by the Joint Commission and a member of the American Hospital Association, NC Hospital Association and the Health Care Advisory Board. In addition, CVMC is licensed by the N.C. Division of Facility Services, Licensure and Certification Section, for 258 beds and to provide general acute care, psychiatry, comprehensive rehabilitation services, critical care services, radiation therapy services, obstetrical services, Level III and neonatal services. CVMC also serves as a training site for Wake Forest University Medical Center and for numerous other clinical training programs across the state. In May 2001, Catawba Valley Medical Center marked a significant milestone by being designated by the American Nurses Credentialing Center as a Magnet Hospital. CVMC is only the 32nd hospital in the nation to seek and attain this level of excellence-the gold award in patient care. And CVMC continues to meet and exceed the ANCC standards by achieving reaccreditation again in August 2005. To date, less than 2% of the nation's 6,000 hospitals have been designated Magnet facilities including leaders in healthcare like Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic. Comprehensive Cancer Center Catawba Valley Medical Center also is proud to have been the first in the area to achieve designation by the American College of Surgeons as a comprehensive community hospital cancer program. This accreditation ensures that the program provides all patients with a full complement of diagnostics, treatment and supportive services. Comprehensive Integrated Rehabilitation Facility The facility's 20-bed Inpatient Unit of its Western N.C. Rehabilitation Center is certified by CARF, the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, as a Comprehensive Integrated Rehabilitation Program. With an interdisciplinary team of physicians and therapists, patients are supported in achieving their best functional and independence levels possible Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence Catawba Valley Medical Center is a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence, a designation from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina's (BCBSNC) Bariatric Physician Advisory Panel. The physician practices and affiliated hospitals identified as Bariatric Surgery Centers of Excellence responded to a Request for Information process and BCBSNC then made onsite visits to the physician practices and affiliated hospitals. The bariatric surgeons were found to provide surgery for morbid obesity based on BCBSNC clinical guidelines for bariatric surgery. The guidelines have been endorsed by the BCBSNC Bariatric Physician Advisory Panel and are based on guidelines from the National Institute of Health and the American Society of Bariatric Surgery. Commission on Laboratory Accreditation of the College of American Pathologists (CAP) Catawba Valley Medical Center is accredited by the Commission on Laboratory Accreditation of the College of American Pathologists (CAP), based on results of an on-site inspection. Catawba Valley Medical Center's laboratory is one of the more than 6,000 CAP-accredited laboratories nationwide. The CAP Laboratory Accreditation Program, begun in the early 1960's, is recognized by the federal government as being equal to or more stringent than the government's own inspection program. During the CAP accreditation process, inspectors examine the lab's records and quality control of procedures for the preceding two years. CAP inspectors also examine the entire staff's qualifications, the laboratory's equipment, facilities, safety program and record, as well as the overall management of the laboratory. This stringent inspection program is designed to specifically ensure the highest standard of care for the laboratory's patients.