MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The WVU Cancer Institute Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center (MBRCC) in Morgantown has received recertification by the QOPI Certification Program, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Association for Clinical Oncology (the Association) and an affiliate of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (the Society). 

The QOPI Certification Program builds on the Society’s Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI), providing a three-year certification for outpatient hematology/oncology practices that meet nationally recognized standards for quality cancer care. 

“The MBRCC is committed to providing high-quality care and chose to participate in this voluntary self-assessment and improvement program,” Mohammad Almubarak, M.D., medical oncologist and hematology and oncology fellowship program director at the WVU Cancer Institute, said. “The entire oncology team has worked incredibly hard to build teams that provide the highest standards of care for our patients, and this recognition affirms that.” 

The MBRCC first achieved certification in February 2016. In applying for recertification, the Center participated in a voluntary comprehensive site assessment against clearly specified standards that are consistent with national guidelines and was successful in meeting the standards and objectives of the QOPI Certification Program.

“QOPI Certification is awarded to oncology practices that have made an extraordinary commitment to going above and beyond in the provision of high-quality cancer care,” Howard A. “Skip” Burris III, M.D., 2021-2022 Board chair of the Association, said. “A practice that achieves this certification is continuously tracking and analyzing data to evaluate and improve processes leading to the highest-quality cancer care possible for our patients.”

The QOPI Certification Program, LLC, was launched in January 2010, and more than 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. Practices that are QOPI Certified 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 the Society and the Oncology Nursing Society.

To become QOPI Certified, practices submit to an evaluation of their entire practice and documentation standards. QOPI Certification Program staff and volunteer committee members conduct an on-site survey, verify that the evaluation and documents are correct, and determine if practices meet core standards in the following areas of treatment:

• Creating a safe environment—staffing, competencies, and general policy
• Treatment planning, patient consent, and education
• Ordering, preparing, dispensing, and administering chemotherapy
• Monitoring after chemotherapy is administered, including adherence, toxicity, and complications
• Treatment planning
• Staff training and education
• Chemotherapy orders and drug preparation
• Patient consent and education
• Safe chemotherapy administration
• Monitoring and assessment of patient well-being.

For more information on QOPI Certification and all of ASCO’s innovative quality improvement programs, visit https://practice.asco.org/quality-improvement/quality-programs.  

For more information on the WVU Cancer Institute, visit WVUMedicine.org/Cancer.