San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium Publishes Study Evaluating a Collaborative Model for Reducing Inequities in Access to Cancer Prevention.

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San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium

Aug 03, 2023, 13:20 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium (SFCCC), a partnership of nonprofit health centers that provides leadership and fosters innovation to improve community health, is pleased to announce the publication of a study analyzing its collaboration with the San Francisco Cancer Initiative (SF CAN) to increase colorectal cancer screening among patients served by community clinics.

Screening champions promote awareness about colorectal cancer at the Mission Neighborhood Health Center.

SF CAN, a UCSF-affiliated organization dedicated to reducing inequities in access to cancer prevention, has been providing technical assistance and resources focused on colorectal cancer screening to several of SFCCC's 12 member clinics since 2018. This qualitative study takes interviews with SFCCC staff and community health center leaders and screening champions to analyze the perceived influence of the program, and the factors that promoted or hindered screening efforts.

The study's findings indicate that SF CAN's support was viewed as highly beneficial in engaging clinic staff in implementing screening activities. "One of the most helpful things has been a feeling that there's an outside source coming in that really keeps us alert and on our toes. It's just emotional and feeling of support is encouraging", shared a medical director at one clinic.

Other interviewees observed that the project fostered open communication within the health centers, promoting new strategies to increase screening rates and address barriers like staffing challenges, patient housing instability, and the COVID-19 pandemic. While screening rates among SFCCC clinics plunged in 2020 with the shelter-in-place orders, they had rebounded to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2021. The collaboration with SF CAN was vital to this recovery by supporting screening strategies focused on telehealth visits, such as mailed stool tests.

SFCCC is pleased to have the success of this collaborative model recognized and would welcome similar partnerships in the future. When an independent organization like SF CAN, devoted to improving patient outcomes and reducing inequities, partners with a consortium and its member clinics to offer technical assistance and resources, there is great potential of enhancing community health among diverse and low-income populations.

For more information about this project, please contact Dr. David Ofman, Chief Medical Officer at SFCCC.

SOURCE San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium