Well-Woman Visits: Guidance and Monitoring Are Key in This Turning Point for Women's Health

An approach to improve the care of mid-life women through the implementation of a Women’s Health Assessment Tool/Clinical Decision Support toolkit

“…Overall, the majority of women found that the WHAT questionnaire was easy to use and facilitated their SD: standard deviation. Raw score valued as follows: "strongly disagree" (-3), "disagree" (-2), "somewhat disagree" (-1), "neither agree nor disagree" (0), "somewhat agree" (1), "agree" (2), "strongly agree" (3).…”

“…Women's annual health assessments or "well-woman visits" have been found to aid disease detection, facilitate referrals to further screening, help relieve patients' worries about health, and are considered particularly important for mid-life women aged 45-64 years. [1][2][3][4] However, the practical challenges of conducting annual health assessments within the primary care practice are notable. Extensive screening lists ultimately reduce time spent between clinicians and patients which negatively impacts the quality of care provided.…”

Outcomes of Implementing the Women's Health Assessment Tool and Clinical Decision Support Tool Kit

“…One study found that only 30% of women aged 40-64 years reported seeking healthcare for their menopausal symptoms within the last 12 months [7]. Additionally, the infrequency of patient visits and the expansive list of topics to cover present doctors with challenges in prioritization during a patient's annual visit [8]. Computer-based instruments linked to electronic health record (EHR) systems such as computer-based clinical decision support (CDS) or online assessment tools have been developed and implemented in primary care to address these issues and have been shown to improve delivery of care and patient outcomes [9][10][11].…”

The Well-Woman Project: Listening to Women's Voices

“…The WWP aimed to gather women's views and stories with respect to the WWV and the conditions of their lives that affect their ability to be well-women and seek well-woman care. This is important as a recent study found that despite the ACA's emphasis on preventive care, “forty percent of women are unaware that they are entitled to WWVs under the ACA and one in five women postpone preventive care owing to cost.” 5 Through the elevation of their voices, women in the WWP not only acknowledged the importance of preventive care but also elucidated the multiple barriers to seeking and obtaining such care, including personal, provider, and system factors. Based on the results reported in this study, it appears that to improve women's health status and reduce inequities, making the preventive WWV available without cost-sharing is a necessary, but not sufficient strategy.…”

“…Despite concerted efforts over the last several years to increase access to the WWV, data from the early years of ACA implementation demonstrated ongoing barriers, including insufficient consumer and provider awareness of the ACA's no cost-sharing provision for preventive services. 4,5 Although 82% of women reported receiving a recent WWV in the 2013 Kaiser Women's Health Survey of a nationally representative sample of U.S. women 15–64 years of age, only 60% of women knew that insurance plans were required to cover WWVs. 4 While there were no differences in WWV access in 2013 by race/ethnicity, uninsured women, low-income women, and those in poorer health were less likely to report having had a recent checkup with a provider.…”