PHILADELPHIA (January 23, 2020) – Fox Chase Cancer Center has been recognized by the QOPI Certification Program LLC as successfully completing a three-year certification for oncology practices that meet nationally recognized standards for quality and safety in cancer care. The QOPI program, a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), builds on ASCO’s Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI).
“Fox Chase is honored to be recognized for our achievements in patient care. This certification shows the impressive work of our faculty and staff and their dedication to ensuring our patients’ health and safety,” said Fox Chase president and CEO Richard I. Fisher, MD.
“ASCO’s QOPI certification is voluntary, so a practice that undertakes this process is demonstrating its commitment to providing patients with high-quality care,” said ASCO President Howard A. “Skip” Burris III, MD, FACP, FASCO. “A practice that achieves certification has evaluated its processes, benchmarked its performance against other top-performing practices, and can be confident in its dedication to quality and safety excellence, as well as continuous quality improvement.”
QOPI is a voluntary self-assessment and improvement program launched by ASCO in 2006 to help hematology/oncology and medical oncology practices assess the quality of care they provide to patients. Through QOPI, practices abstract data from patients’ records up to twice per year and enter this information into a secure database. More than 750 oncology practices have registered for QOPI and contribute data to the quality registry.
QOPI analyzes individual practice data and compares these to more than 170 evidence-based and consensus quality measures. The information is then provided in reports to participating practices. Individual practices also are able to compare their performance to data from other practices across the country. Based on this feedback, doctors and practices can identify areas for improvement.
The QOPI Certification Program was launched in January 2010; nearly 300 practices are currently certified. This certification for outpatient oncology practices is the first program of its kind for oncology in the United States. In 2016 the program was expanded internationally
“The review is extremely granular and actually tracks on an individual patient level the process of educating and consenting the patient; ordering, preparing, and administering chemotherapy agents; as well patient follow-up,” said Martin J. Edelman, MD, chair of the Department of Hematology/Oncology at Fox Chase.
“Our team was led by Mary Ellen Morba and physician champion for the certification, Dr. Daniel M. Geynisman. Thanks to their leadership and the hard work of the entire staff at Fox Chase, the survey team issued a very favorable review. Overall, our QOPI certification is one more demonstration of Fox Chase’s commitment to excellence in patient care.”
Oncologists can achieve certification by participating in a voluntary comprehensive site assessment against clearly specified standards that are consistent with national guidelines. The QOPI Certification Program seal designates those practices that successfully meet the standards and objectives of the program, which includes scoring above threshold on the key QOPI quality measures and meeting chemotherapy safety standards established by ASCO and the Oncology Nursing Society. The QOPI Certification Program staff and committee members then verify through an on-site survey that the practice met core standards in areas of treatment, including:
- Treatment planning, patient consent, and education
- Ordering, preparing, dispensing, and administering chemotherapy
- Monitoring patients after chemotherapy is administered, including adherence, toxicity, and complications
- Staff training, education, and ongoing competency
- Environmental safety and safe practices.
QOPI and the QOPI Certification Program are projects dedicated to innovative quality improvement programs. For more information, please visit: https://practice.asco.org/quality-improvement/quality-programs.