Educating Primary Care Providers on the Recommended Use of Cologuard

Abstract

Background: In August of 2014, Cologuard was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a colorectal (CRC) screening method for average-risk adults. CRC is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths in the United States (US); therefore, it is extremely important to understand and be knowledgeable of how, when, and why Cologuard should be prescribed. Objective: The purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project is to determine provider’s knowledge of recommended national guidelines regarding Cologuard prescribing pre- and post-educational intervention. Design: Quantitative study design is incorporated in the project, using a short multiple-choice pre- and post-survey and informational Cologuard brochure. Setting: One rural primary care office in Safford, Arizona. Participants: Primary care providers. Measurements: Using measurements of central tendency with the results from the pre and post-survey. Results: The overall results showed that participants (n=4) for the pre-survey revealed a mean score of 75% and participants (n=2) for the post-survey revealed a mean score of 84.62%. Three medical doctors and one nurse practitioner participated in the pre-survey and two medical doctors participated in the post-survey. One medical doctor participated in the post-survey twice due to not being able to find the brochure initially and the other medical doctor claimed he/she could not find the brochure; however, scores still improved by 9.62% from pre-survey to post-survey. Discussion: The results of this QI project provided evidence that showed a change in provider knowledge regarding Cologuard use after evidence-based education using a brochure was provided. Although providers had knowledge previous to the educational intervention regarding Cologuard use, there is still a lack of knowledge among primary care providers regarding the national recommended guidelines and how and when to prescribe or not to prescribe Cologuard. Therefore, it is important for all primary care providers who prescribe Cologuard to be knowledgeable on current evidence-based recommendations provided by the US Preventative Service Task Force and Exact Sciences.