Abstract
Background and Objective: HPV-related cancers are a significant problem facing the United States, especially considering many of these cancers can be prevented with HPV vaccination. Despite CDC recommendations, HPV vaccination rates continue to remain very low, disproportionately impacting rural communities. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to improve HPV vaccination series initiation, subsequent doses, and completion rates in adolescents between the ages of 11 and 17 at two rural health care clinics by improving provider recommendation, decreasing missed opportunities, educating patients and guardians, and implementing a call-back reminder system.|Methods: Nine providers including five MDs, one DO, two PAs, and one NP at Atchison Internal Medicine and Family Practice and Atchison Family Medicine participated in the project. The project included a 6-week pre-intervention phase to assess provider recommendation rates followed by an educational session with providers and a 6-week intervention phase. The intervention phase consisted of provider recommendation at all visits to reduce the number of missed opportunities, educational handouts on HPV and the HPV vaccine for parents and patients, and a call-back reminder system.|Results: The call-back reminder system was responsible for 50 adolescents receiving a dose of the HPV vaccination, 41 of which have now completed the series. During the 3-month project timeframe, adolescents received a total of 110 HPV vaccinations which is a significant increase from the 42 HPV vaccinations given during the same timeframe the previous year.|Conclusion: A call-back reminder system was the most effective approach to increasing adolescent HPV completion rates in a rural clinic setting.