Increasing Adherence to Cervical Cancer Screening Guidelines

The dramatic changes in the 2009 American College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists’ (ACOG) cervical cancer screening guidelines created challenges in clinical implementation. When audited in October 2010, adherence to the new guidelines by clinicians in a university health center was 73.95%. After implementation of a multifaceted quality-improvement project, adherence significantly improved to 90.20%. This article discusses the components of a quality-improvement project focused on increasing providers’ adherence to guideline-consistent practice.