摘要
AIM:To determine whether a communication instru-ment provided to patients prior to their primary carephysician(PCP)visit initiates a conversation with theirPCP about colorectal cancer screening(CRC-S),impact-ing screening referral rates in fully insured and underin-sured patients.METHODS:A prospective randomized control studywas performed at a single academic center outpatient internal medicine(IRMC,underinsured)and fam-ily medicine(FMRC,insured)resident clinics prior to scheduled visits.In the intervention group,a pamphlet about the benefit of CRC-S and a reminder card were given to patients before the scheduled visit for prompt-ing of CRC-S referral by their PCP.The main outcome measured was frequency of CRC-S referral in each clinic after intervention.RESULTS:In the IRMC,148 patients participated,a control group of 72 patients(40F and 32M)and 76 patients(48F and 28M)in the intervention group.Re-ferrals for CRC-S occurred in 45/72(63%)of control vs 70/76(92%)in the intervention group(P≤0.001).In the FMRC,126 patients participated,66(39F:27M)con-trol and 60(33F:27M)in the intervention group.CRC-S referrals occurred in 47/66(71%)of controls vs 56/60(98%)in the intervention group(P≤0.001).CONCLUSION:Patient initiated physician prompting produced a significant referral increase for CRC-S in un-derinsured and insured patient populations.Additional investigation aimed at increasing CRC-S acceptance is warranted.
AIM: To determine whether a communication instru-ment provided to patients prior to their primary care physician(PCP) visit initiates a conversation with their PCP about colorectal cancer screening(CRC-S), impact-ing screening referral rates in fully insured and underin-sured patients.METHODS: A prospective randomized control study was performed at a single academic center outpatient internal medicine(IRMC, underinsured) and fam-ily medicine(FMRC, insured) resident clinics prior to scheduled visits. In the intervention group, a pamphlet about the benefit of CRC-S and a reminder card were given to patients before the scheduled visit for prompt-ing of CRC-S referral by their PCP. The main outcome measured was frequency of CRC-S referral in each clinic after intervention. RESULTS: In the IRMC, 148 patients participated, a control group of 72 patients(40F and 32M) and 76 patients(48F and 28M) in the intervention group. Re-ferrals for CRC-S occurred in 45/72(63%) of control vs 70/76(92%) in the intervention group(P ≤ 0.001). In the FMRC, 126 patients participated, 66(39F:27M) con-trol and 60(33F:27M) in the intervention group. CRC-S referrals occurred in 47/66(71%) of controls vs 56/60(98%) in the intervention group(P ≤ 0.001). CONCLUSION: Patient initiated physician prompting produced a significant referral increase for CRC-S in un-derinsured and insured patient populations. Additional investigation aimed at increasing CRC-S acceptance is warranted.
