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. 2023 Jul;12(3):e002252.
doi: 10.1136/bmjoq-2023-002252.

Saturday Pap Smear Clinic: addressing barriers to cervical cancer screening

Brittany Strelow  1   2 , Mollie Francis  2 , Gabrielle Gertner  2 , Rachel Olson  2   3 , Kholood Abuhadid  2 , Deqa Abdi  2 , Jordan Anderson  2 , Nicole Fellows  4 , Stephanie Fink  4 , Joy Stevens  4 , Sonya Peters  4 , Anne Stolp  4 , Johanna Tweedy  4 , Danielle O'Laughlin  4   2
Affiliations

Saturday Pap Smear Clinic: addressing barriers to cervical cancer screening

Brittany Strelow et al. BMJ Open Qual. 2023 Jul.

Abstract

Background: 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.

Materials and methods: 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.

Results: 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'.

Conclusions: 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.

Keywords: General practice; Health Promotion; Obstetrics and gynecology; PRIMARY CARE; Women's health.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Per cent compliance comparison between intervention population (CIM) and control group (FM). A two-tailed χ2 analysis with Yates correction p value was determined to be less than 0.0001. CIM, Community Internal Medicine; FM, family medicine.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Demographic characteristics of Saturday Pap smear patients. Demographics were obtained through a retrospective EMR search. (A) Age demographics of women seen at the Saturday Pap Clinic. (B) Race demographics of Saturday Pap smear patients. EMR, electronic medical record.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Prevalence of genital Human papillomavirus (HPV) comparing Saturday Pap Clinic results to national data. All HPV cases from the intervention population were ‘high risk’.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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