Identifying Cancer Screening Adherence in the Emergency Department Utilizing Research Associates

Despite the demonstrated benefits of regular screening, a large proportion of the adult female population are out of compliance with recommendations from specialty societies regarding breast and cervical cancer.

The current study investigated whether research associates (RAs) in the emergency department (ED) can usefully assess patients' recent compliance with breast and cervical cancer screening (BCCS) recommendations and provide information regarding how patients may access any recommended screening when it is overdue.

RAs at 5 heterogeneous hospitals in the United States approached willing nonemergent female patients and visitors between the ages of 21 and 74 years. After obtaining verbal consent, the participant's compliance with U.S. Preventive Service Task Force recommendations for BCCS was assessed. Participants found overdue for screening were provided information on how to obtain these recommended screenings.

A total of 5419 participants were between 50 and 74 years old and would be recommended to have breast cancer screening, and 11,667 participants were between 21 and 65 years old and would be recommended to have cervical cancer screening. Among women of age for either of these screenings, 3169 reported that they did not have a women's primary health care provider (i.e., doctor, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant who manages women's primary health care issues). A total of 786 women (15% of women 50-74 years old) were found to be out of compliance with breast cancer screening guidelines and 1208 women (12% of women 21 to 65 years with intact uteruses) were found to be out of compliance with cervical cancer screening guidelines.

Our results indicate that RAs can identify large numbers of women who should undergo BCCS screening across a variety of emergency department settings.