WOMEN'S HEALTH

Overview

If one theme emerges in the following profiles about women's health, it is that ignorance is the enemy. Misconceptions about the need for mammograms, or the value of prenatal vitamins, for example, remain in many cases the biggest barriers to better care for women. We are getting more sophisticated at reaching and educating patients, but there is still much room for improvement.

We see that to overcome the barriers to better rates of screenings for cervical and breast cancer, health plans are increasingly trying to "get into the mind" of the health care consumer, by using surveys designed to pinpoint obstacles.

Better tracking and reminder systems support these efforts, and come from better data, involving outbound communications as well. Many of the systems put in place to support these relatively basic efforts also enhance future organizational initiatives to attack more complex and less straightforward health care issues.

Women's health issues nationwide have been affected by the provision of open or direct access to OB/GYN physicians, as well. This has improved perceptions about managed care and access to care and service for many women, but it has also raised challenges to plans gathering information about women's health issues.

Health plans recognize that women's health concerns transcend gender specific conditions. For example, cardiovascular illness, cancer and diabetes have a significant impact on "women's health." Additionally, health care organizations recognize that women are the principal health care decision-makers in families.

As in the other sections of this book, the buy-in and active support of providers within the network, and collaboration with extended networks that include vendors and community resources, help ensure the success of quality improvement activities.