Research shows that women are more likely to have a Pap Smear if it is suggested by their health practitioner. You can improve your screening practices by simply asking  your patients if they are up to date with having a Pap Smear.

Utilising Recall and Reminder systems can help improve Pap Smear rates. GP down south can help you to set up information systems to correctly identify patients that need a gentle reminder.  Issues surrounding correctly entering data into your computerised clinical software is another reason Pap Smear rates may be lower than expected, if data hasn't been entered into the designated section patients may miss out on recalls and reports from the clinical software can be misleading.

Baseline data from the WA Cytology Register (July 2006 - June 2008) provides a 61.92% overall rate for Pap Smears in women living in GP down south postcode areas aged between 20 and 69 (adjustment for hysterectomy).

However, when we came to report on our National Performance Indicators using data provided from General Practices using the Canning Data Tool, the data indicated only a 7% rate.

Why is this?

It appears that many GPs are not correctly entering Pap Smear results into their clinical software. Even though the results are sitting in progress notes and patients have been added to a recall, a report on the practices overall Pap Smear rate is unable to be extracted. Most clinical software programs have a specific tab/window where the date of the last Pap Smear and/or the outcome of the test can be entered and displayed.