Spectrum Health Services
Title: Improving Cervical Cancer Screening Outcomes in West Philadelphia
Student Interns:
Akshara Kannan
Drexel University College of Medicine
Academic Preceptor:
Annette Gadegbeku, MD
Drexel University College of Medicine
Community Preceptor:
Theresa Moran, RN, MSN
Spectrum Health Services
Community Site:
Spectrum Health Services is a Federally Qualified Health Center with various locations throughout the Greater Philadelphia area. Located in West Philadelphia, Spectrum Community Health Center provides comprehensive healthcare to the West and Southwest Philadelphia community. Services include general adult and pediatric care, OB/GYN care, podiatry, dentistry, and behavioral healthcare.
Team’s Experience:
The Bridging the Gaps student intern conducted a quality improvement project aimed at increasing cervical cancer screening rates and identifying barriers preventing regular screening in patients receiving gynecological care at the Spectrum Community Health Center. This included scheduling patients for screenings, talking to patients at gynecology appointments, and holding events such as mass walk-in screenings, then identifying common themes in patient responses regarding their experiences surrounding cervical cancer screenings. The intern conducted a second project to help improve overall sexual and reproductive health literacy in the community. This included creating various educational resources geared toward both pregnant and non-pregnant patients on topics such as smoking cessation and oral care during pregnancy, postpartum care, STD prevention and testing, sexual assault resources, and birth control methods.
Reflections
“My time at Spectrum Health Services through Bridging the Gaps was quite invaluable, as I had the chance to work with the surrounding community to identify and ameliorate an issue I had already felt passionately about. I was able to interact with individuals from a diverse range of backgrounds and learning about their unique experiences regarding accessing sexual and reproductive healthcare as well as other healthcare services furthered my interest in actively advocating to bridge systemic barriers to increase access to preventive care and improve community health outcomes.”
Akshara Kannan