Submitted by Mid-Illinois Hematology Oncology Associates
Our healthcare world is filled with acronyms which can confuse even the best of us. Now there is a new one to learn: QOPI, which stands for Quality Oncology Practice Initiative. QOPI was developed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology to “promote excellence in cancer care.” There are two parts to the QOPI program: participation and certification. Practices that participate in QOPI submit data and use the data to improve the quality of care they provide. Practices that are QOPI certified have met certain scoring criteria in the data they have submitted and have completed the certification process. Once a practice is certified by QOPI they can state that they are a QOPI Certified Practice and that they have met quality and safety standards.
Quality improvement in healthcare is an ongoing goal for all medical facilities. Hospitals, outpatient facilities, and physicians’ offices all want to ensure that they are providing their patients the best quality care. There are many methods of measuring and ensuring quality; one of the most common is comparing facility data to local, state, or national data. Another method is using standards set by an authoritative body and comparing actual practice to these standards.
QOPI was started in 2006 with the goal to provide standards of quality of care for medical oncology (cancer) physician practices. Practices who participate in QOPI collect data for specific quality measures and submit this de-identified to QOPI. They are then given their results as well as comparative data so that the physician practices can see where they stand in the quality of care they provide and make appropriate improvements. The quality measures are divided into site specific modules which include breast cancer, colorectal cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, lung cancer, and gynecological cancers. In addition, there are quality measures for symptom/toxicity management, care at end of life, and a core module which covers basic cancer care for all patients. Practices can participate in the data collection every six months and are given their data compared to national, state, and other group data. This data enables practices to compare their patient care to other practices and use that comparison for practice improvement.
QOPI Certification, which was started in 2010, “promotes the highest quality cancer care as defined by the clinician experts.” Practices that seek QOPI certification must participate in a data collection round and include data for all required quality measures. The data that is submitted must meet certain scoring criteria. In addition, these practices must comply with certain American Society of Clinical Oncology/Oncology Nursing Society safety standards. These standards relate to safety in the preparation and administration of chemotherapy. In addition, practices seeking certification must undergo a review of randomly selected records and safety standards as well as an on-site review. Once a practice has undergone all of these steps and met the required criteria, the QOPI Certification Program may grant them QOPI certification.
This certification is for a three-year time period and then the practice must undergo re-certification. To maintain certification, a practice must submit data to QOPI at least annually.
What does this mean to you? A QOPI-certified practice has met specific standards in quality and safety set by the QOPI Certification Program of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. QOPI-certified practices can use the QOPI Certified logo, so you may see this on materials from these practices. QOPI certification is voluntary; there are no requirements for a medical oncology practice to be QOPI certified; however, QOPI certification can tell you that the practice is committed to delivering the highest quality of cancer care to you.
For more information, you may contact Mid-Illinois Hematology & Oncology Associates, Ltd. 309-452-9701. They are a QOPI Certified practice located inside the Community Cancer Center at 407 E. Vernon Avenue in Normal. You may also visit the QOPI website qopi.asco.org.