Saturday Pap Smear Clinic: addressing barriers to cervical cancer screening

• Published in: BMJ open quality 2023-07, Vol.12 (3), p.e002252
• Main Authors: Strelow, Brittany, Francis, Mollie, Gertner, Gabrielle, Olson, Rachel, Abuhadid, Kholood, Abdi, Deqa, Anderson, Jordan, Fellows, Nicole, Fink, Stephanie, Stevens, Joy, Peters, Sonya, Stolp, Anne, Tweedy, Johanna, O'Laughlin, Danielle
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Advertising; Aged; Appointments and Schedules; Cellular biology; Cervical cancer; Compliance; Demographics; Early Detection of Cancer; Ethnicity; Female; Females; Gynecology; Human papillomavirus; Humans; Infections; Medical screening; Middle Aged; Pap smear; Papanicolaou Test; Patients; Prevention; Primary care; Quality Improvement Report; Social networks; Task forces; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms - diagnosis; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms - prevention & control; Vaginal Smears; Web portals; Womens health
• ISSN: 2399-6641; 2399-6641
• DOI: 10.1136/bmjoq-2023-002252

The incidence of cervical cancer has decreased by 70% since the 1950s. Preventative measures include vaccination against HPV strains and Papanicolaou tests. Early identification of cervical cancer through routine screening can significantly improve patient outcomes. At our academic institution, Community Internal Medicine (CIM) Clinic, 63% of female patients aged 21-65 were compliant with cervical cancer screening. The opening of the 'Saturday Pap Smear Clinic' sought to address barriers by offering non-traditional appointment times on Saturday mornings with an all female staff. Our aim was to increase the cervical cancer screening rate by 1% within 12 weeks. Our team compared CIM (intervention) and family medicine (FM) (control) compliance rates from September 2021 to January 2022. Messages were sent to the patient indicating non-compliance and offering options to complete screening. At the start of this study, 5239 CIM patients were cervical cancer screening non-compliant. Postintervention, cervical screening rates among non-compliant women within CIM improved by 1.2%. The intervention cohort, CIM patients, had a significant improvement in compliance compared with the control group, FM patients. White women between the ages of 50 and 65 comprised the majority of patients who used the 'Saturday Pap Smear Clinic'. The availability of Saturday appointments for cervical cancer screening completion can enhance cervical cancer screening compliance among eligible women. Eliminating barriers for women can improve health outcomes.