Objective
To determine the rates at which private primary-care clinics are recommending blood
pressure and cholesterol measurement, smoking cessation, clinical breast examination,
screening mammography, Papanicolaou testing, and influenza and pneumococcus immunizations.
Material and Methods
We conducted a mail survey of 7,997 randomly selected patients from 44 primary-care
clinics in and around Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, of whom 6,830 (85.4%) completed
the questionnaire on preventive services delivery rates. The responses were analyzed
statistically, including stratification by reason for the clinic visit.
Results
On the average, about two-thirds of the patients in each clinic reported being up-to-date
on preventive services before their clinic visit; an exception was pneumococcus immunization
(mean rate, 33%). Except for blood pressure and smoking cessation advice, less than
30% of patients who were not up-to-date on a preventive service were offered it if
the clinic visit was for a reason other than a checkup or physical examination. For
patients who said that they saw their physician for a checkup or physical examination,
the rate was more than 50% only for Papanicolaou smear. In contrast, nearly all responding
practitioners agreed that each of the eight preventive services was very important
or important.
Conclusion
Preventive services consensus goals are not being met, even for patients who report
that their clinic visit was for a checkup or physical examination. This finding suggests
that it may be necessary to develop clinical systems that support and enable the delivery
of preventive services.
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Article Info
Footnotes
This study was supported in part by Grant HS 08091 from the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research.
Individual reprints of this article are not available.
Identification
Copyright
© 1997 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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- CorrectionMayo Clinic ProceedingsVol. 72Issue 7
- PreviewIn an article entitled “Delivery Rates for Preventive Services in 44 Midwestern Clinics,” which was published in the June 1997 issue of the Nlayo Clinic Proceedings (Mayo Clin Proc 1997; 72: 515-523), a few numbers in Table 5 were incorrect. The corrected table is reprinted below (corrected numbers are shown in boldface type).
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