Identifying Primary Care Patients at High Risk for Lung Cancer: A Quality Improvement Study

Despite guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, millions of Americans at high risk for lung cancer go unscreened every year.

The purpose of this quality improvement project was to identify individuals at high risk for the development of lung cancer using a lung cancer screening tool. All patients who were identified as at risk received an order for screening via a low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) scan.

A quality improvement team educated providers at a primary care clinic about administering a lung cancer screening tool to all patients at their annual physical examination. For eligible patients, providers could order an LDCT scan to detect early lung cancer. Pre- and postintervention data were collected to determine whether there was a statistically significant increase in the number of LDCT scans ordered for eligible patients.

There was no statistically significant increase in the number of LDCT scans ordered from pre- to postintervention. The use of a lung cancer screening tool more comprehensively addressed patients' smoking status, which can increase the identification of at-risk patients.