Screening

Staff Contact: Sarah Mroz

GOAL: INCREASE EARLY DETECTION THROUGH APPROPRIATE SCREENING FOR CANCER

Priorities

I. Increase public awareness of recommended cancer screenings
II. Implement health system based strategies to increase cancer screening rates
III. Increase access to cancer screening
IV. Increase the number of high risk individuals who receive a cancer risk assessment
V. Screening Targets for Change

Chapter Interest Group Notes

October 18, 2012

If you were unable to attend the WCC Annual Meeting on Oct. 18th and would like to add to the group discussion, CLICK HERE to give your feedback.

Taskforces

WI Breast Cancer Task Force
The WI CCC Program has collaborated with the WI Well Woman Program and the American Cancer Society to convene the Wisconsin Breast Cancer Task Force (BCTF) since December 2009. The WBCTF is a diverse group of local, regional and statewide organizations and advocates committed to breast health services, education, support and screening. The group has increased from 22 to 43 organizations and includes over 90 representatives collaborating to to address the decline in breast cancer screening rates in Dane County and statewide. The WBCTF has established a Provider Outreach Team and Public Education Team to advance goal of increasing breast cancer screening in Wisconsin. Click here to visit the WBCTF web page or here to read the October 2011 Surveillance Brief about the WI Breast Cancer Task Force.

Implementation Projects

Improving Cancer Screenings in WI's Federally Qualified Health Clinics
The start of 2010 brought a shift in the way the WI Primary Health Care Association (WPHCA) and the federally qualified health clinics (FQHC) do collaborative work. The idea of disease specific "collaboratives" is slowly dissolving. Instead the WI CCC Program, together with the other Chronic Disease programs and WPHCA, through Program Integration are working to have only a few disease specific measures the FQHCs have to report on and instead focus more on a preventive model that all FQHCs will work on. Simultaneously this year, there was a great interest initiated by the FQHCs for improving colorectal cancer screening and implementing iFOBT as a screening tool. In April 2010, our Cancer bi-monthly call with the FQHCs was now open to all FQHCs (not just those previously in the Cancer Collaborative) and it featured Dr. Noelle LoConte on colorectal screening guidelines and how to implement them in clinics. WI CCC Program co-sponsored the webinar. Interest in how to get iFOBT continued and so on the June call, an iFOBT product representative was featured on the call to help FQHCs learn more about iFOBT and how to start it in their clinic. We hope this shift in implementing a new screening option for patients will continue.

Promoting Colorectal Cancer Screening Events
The WI CCC Program awarded the Vernon Memorial Hospital (VMH) the "Planning a Colorectal Cancer Screening Event in Southwestern Wisconsin" grant in November 2009 to increase colorectal screening rates in the southwest region of Wisconsin. The VMH worksite screening events did not yield as many screenings as first thought. Through our work with VMH and our evaluator, we have learned some valuable lessons about hosting screening events. Initial findings suggest:

confusion around insurance coverage in rural communities may be a barrier to getting colonoscopies;
finding new venues and partners for colonoscopy screening can be challenging in very small communities with limited worksite venues;
Community partners needed to be a required part of planning and executing screening events;
Follow up needs to be done to ensure return of the FIT kits.

In September 2010, we awarded CCC funds to five additional grantees to implement colorectal screening events through June 1, 2011. The lessons learned from the VMH pilot have been incorporated into these new awards. The grantees for the 2nd round of colorectal screening event funding are: Aurora Sinai in Milwaukee, Columbia St. Mary's - Milwaukee, Franciscan Skemp - La Crosse, ProHealth Care - Waukesha, Scenic Bluffs Community Health Clinic - Cashton.

Policy Related Work

None currently