Well Woman's Group Medical Appointment: For screening and preventive care

Maintaining a screening program, such as regular Papanicolaou testing, can be a challenge for primary care practices on account of long wait times and patient factors.

To effectively and efficiently improve access to appointments and to provide screening and patient education in a socially supported setting.

A group medical appointment called the Well Woman's Group Medical Appointment has been developed that focuses on Pap smear preventive screening tests. Women are invited by their family physicians, and group appointments are booked for 2 hours on a day when the whole office can be used. Each woman is given a "Pap bag" (containing a labeled slide in its protective case, a spatula, a cytobrush, and patient labels) and sent to a waiting room stocked with healthy snacks, tea, coffee, and pens. While each woman is getting tested, the others have a chance to ask questions. Each woman's height, weight, blood pressure, date of last period, and body mass index are recorded. At the end of the session, the women fill out an evaluation form. Afterward there is a short debriefing session, all information is transferred to each patient's electronic medical record, and the slides are sent to the laboratory for testing.

This program is a viable way to improve office processes and an efficient way to complete women's screening tests, meet goals to improve women's health care, and shorten waiting lists. The increased role of the medical office assistant improves outcomes, and group appointments can be applied to a number of health care measures.