Tammy Walker Cancer Center receives ASCO QOPI® certification

The hematology and medical oncology team at Tammy Walker Cancer Center. *Photo courtesy SRHC*

The Tammy Walker Cancer Center’s medical oncology and hematology department has received a three-year certification from the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI).

The voluntary program is an effort to help medical oncology practices assess the quality of care they provide patients.

To become QOPI® Certified, practices have to submit to an evaluation of their entire practice and documentation standards. The QOPI® Certification Program staff and committee members then verify through an on-site survey that the evaluation and documents are correct and that the practices meet core standards in areas of treatment, including:

Creating a safe environment—staffing, competencies, and general policy
Treatment planning, patient consent, and education
Safe ordering, preparing, dispensing, and administering chemotherapy
Monitoring after chemotherapy is administered, including adherence, toxicity, and complications
Treatment planning
Staff training and education

“QOPI Certification is a great fit for our program,” said Melanie Leepers, cancer program manager at the Tammy Walker Cancer Center. “The measures and standards of QOPI align with SRHC’s core values, mission, and vision. QOPI certification supports high-quality patient care and good outcomes. The QOPI abstract reports enable the team to develop and implement applicable process changes and as a result, have helped to solidify the team. QOPI abstracts are completed bi-annually; therefore, process improvement is dynamic.”

The QOPI® Certification Program was launched in January 2010 and 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 and in 2016 was expanded internationally. The QOPI® Certification Program seal designates those practices that successfully met the standards and objectives of the QOPI® Certification Program, which includes scoring above the threshold on the key QOPI® quality measures and meeting chemotherapy safety standards established by ASCO and the Oncology Nursing Society.

“By choosing to go through and then successfully completing ASCO’s QOPI® Certification process, a practice demonstrates its dedication to providing high-quality care to patients with cancer,” said ASCO President Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, FACS, FASCO. “It is a concrete action a practice has taken to fully realize a commitment to quality, safety, and continual process improvement.”