A study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology examined provider strategies on improving colorectal cancer screening.
University of Toronto researcher Nancy Baxter, MD, PhD, and colleagues conducted a population-based survey of primary care providers linked to patients using administrative data. Researchers included 717 primary care providers and 147,834 patients overdue for CRC screenings.
Here's what they found.
1. Most physicians employed strategies to encourage patients to get screenings including electronic medical record use, patient reminders, list generation, audits, feedback reports or dedicating staff members to screening efforts.
2. No single strategy increased screening rates; however using multiple strategies resulted in increased screening participation.
3. For patients more than a year overdue, generating lists weakly associated to a screening uptake.
Researchers concluded, "In practice, while individual PCP strategies have little effect, the use of multiple strategies to enhance screening appears to improve CRC screening uptake in patients."