International Acclaim in the Field of Oncology

12 September 2016

The Oncology Team of the HYGEIA Hospital 3^rd Medical Oncology Department has become the first international Oncology Team to receive the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI^®) certification by the American Society of Oncology (ASCO^®).

The QOPI Certification Program, LCC (QCP) gages the quality and safety of the care offered by oncology teams to their patients and is part of the QOPI program. Specifically, the certification is awarded to oncology teams that meet the safety standards in chemotherapy administration, as specified by American guidelines. These standards include treatment planning; staff training and education; chemotherapy orders and drug preparation; patient consent and education; safe chemotherapy administration; and monitoring and assessment of patient well-being.

The QOPI Certification Program was launched in the USA in 2010, and more than 300 oncology practices are currently certified, while in 2016 it launched a pilot international project. The Oncology Team of the HYGEIA Hospital 3rd Medical Oncology Clinic was the first international team to participate in the program.

Commenting on the certification, the Director of the HYGEIA Hospital 3rd Medical Oncology Department, Medical Oncologist Evangelia Razi, noted “We are very proud of this achievement, since the QOPI certification demonstrates our dedication to quality and safety in the care we provide to our patients. We aim to maintain the top quality standards of the QOPI Certification Program, while at the same time exploring new methods to improve the medical care we offer, to the benefit of our patients.”

The Oncology Team of the HYGEIA Hospital 3rd Medical Oncology Department is the only team in Greece selected by ASCO® to participate in the 2016 Quality Training Program (QTP). The program is designed to train healthcare providers and oncologists to investigate and implement quality improvement and manage clinical and administrative processes in their daily operations, while also preparing them to train others in this area.