Understanding Physician Characteristics of Cervical Cancer Screening Rates at TUKHS Division of General Internal Medicine

The cervical cancer screening rate at The University of Kansas Health System (TUKHS) Division of General, Geriatric, & Hospital Medicine was 72.73% in October 2022, falling short of the 79% goal threshold.We hypothesized that there are differences in cervical screening rates between physician resident or attending status, and between physician gender.Methods.Data was collected from the records of every patient within eligibility criteria of the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force screening recommendations.This includes patients with a cervix from ages 21-64.Cervical screening rate was defined as number of patients not due for cervical screening/total number of eligible patients.Outcome variables include adherent, nonadherent, or no record.Significance was determined with chi-square calculations.The alpha level was set at 0.05. ResultsData was collected from 10,704 patients fitting criteria.To minimize margin of error, a sample size of at least 371 was needed.Data from 500 patients were randomly selected and analyzed.Due to hysterectomy history, 63 were excluded.There was no significant difference in screening adherence based on physician gender (P = 0.22).Of the physicians adherent to screening guidelines, 43% were attendings and 57% were residents.Of the physicians who were non-adherent, 82% were attendings, and 18% were residents.Overall, the rate of screening adherence between attending vs. resident physicians was significant (P = 0.015). Conclusions.There is a significant difference in the screening adherence of resident physicians compared to attending physicians.This identifies future intervention areas for efforts to improve physician cervical cancer screening compliance at TUKHS.