Using a Frontline Staff Intervention to Improve Cervical Cancer Screening in a Large Academic Internal Medicine Clinic

BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is the third most common malignancy affecting women. Screening with Papanicolaou (Pap) tests effectively identifies precancerous lesions and early-stage cervical cancer. While the nationwide rate of cervical cancer screening (CCS) is 84%, our urban general internal medicine (GIM) clinic population had a CCS rate of 70% in 2016. OBJECTIVE: To improve our clinic\u27s CCS rate to match or exceed the national average within 18 months by identifying barriers and testing solutions. DESIGN: A quality improvement project led by a multidisciplinary group of healthcare providers. PARTICIPANTS: Our GIM clinic includes 16 attending physicians, 116 resident physicians, and 20 medical assistants (MAs) with an insured and underserved patient population. INTERVENTION: Phase 1 lasted 9 months and implemented CCS patient outreach, patient financial incentives, and clinic staff education. Phase 2 lasted 9 months and involved a workflow change in which MAs identified candidates for CCS during patient check-in. Feedback spanned the entire study period. MAIN MEASURES: Our primary outcome was the number of Pap tests completed per month during the 2 study phases. Our secondary outcome was the clinic population\u27s CCS rate for all eligible clinic patients. KEY RESULTS: After interventions, the average number of monthly Pap tests increased from 35 to 56 in phase 1 and to 75 in phase 2. Of 385 patients contacted in phase 1, 283 scheduled a Pap test and 115 (41%) completed it. Compared to baseline, both interventions improved cervical cancer screening (phase 1 relative risk, 1.86; 95% CI, 1.64-2.10; P \u3c 0.001; phase 2 relative risk, 2.70; 95% CI, 2.40-3.02; P \u3c 0.001). Our clinic\u27s CCS rate improved from 70% to 75% after the 18-month intervention. CONCLUSIONS: The rate of CCS increased by 5% after a systematic 2-phase organizational intervention that empowered MAs to remind, identify, and prepare candidates during check-in for CCS