Assessment of urgent and ongoing contraceptive needs in an OB/GYN urgent care setting

The potential that ongoing contraception and emergency contraception (EC) offer to reduce unplanned pregnancy and abortion is diminished by many barriers. Even when women seek care, their acute needs for those interventions may not be assessed.

This is a retrospective chart review of charts of women potentially at risk for unplanned pregnancy who were provided care in an OB-GYN urgent care clinic in a tertiary care, training hospital. Information was collected about the patient's age group, her presenting complaint, the specialty of the resident who saw her and whether or not her needs for EC and ongoing contraception were assessed and/or met.

Charts of 1006 visits were assessed; the visits of 666 potentially at-risk women were included. Slightly more than one third (37.5%) of women were asked about contraception. Only 11% of women were asked about recent unprotected intercourse; 20% of women with recent unprotected intercourse were given EC.

Even in centers dedicated to women's reproductive health, the acute need for fertility control and EC is not adequately assessed. Many opportunities to reduce unintended pregnancy are missed.