Closing the Gap: Cervical Cancer Screening

Background and Hypothesis: Cervical cancer death rate has dropped significantly with the development of the pap test and appropriate screening. Screening in the family medicine office provides patients with an additional option for cancer screening instead of the GYN office. This quality improvement project, titled “Women’s Wellness Wednesdays”, blocked the schedule once monthly to allow for gynecologic exams and cervical cancer screening with the hypothesis of blocked scheduled time and patient outreach will improve cervical cancer screening in the family medicine office.

Methods: The report in the EMR (Epic) determined 2,348 clinic patients had cervical cancer care gaps. The patients’ charts were reviewed to determine if the care gap was accurate. Patients status-post hysterectomy including cervix had the care gap discontinued. Many patients receive their gynecologic care from an OBGYN and their pap results were obtained via lab data collection. The patients that were eligible for pap testing were contacted through the EMR to schedule a GYN exam during the blocked schedule time. The study is ongoing currently with preliminary results as below.

Results: The quality improvement project has been ongoing for four months and the care gap report has decreased to 1,957 patients. The report will continue to be run at 4 month intervals.

Conclusion: Appropriate and timely cancer screening is important for patients and as the family medicine physician to be able to offer cervical cancer screenings will increase the likelihood of completing screening. In the first four months of the project, we have seen an improvement in the care gaps reported. Cancer screening is a large part of health maintenance as described by the tenants of osteopathic medicine.

Acknowledgement of Research Study Sponsors and IRB: Jefferson Health Northeast outpatient family medicine clinic is the site of the quality improvement project. A quality improvement project is exempt from IRB.