West Virginia Clinic Raises Its Colorectal Cancer Screening Rate | CDC

West Virginia Clinic Raises Its Colorectal Cancer Screening Rate | CDC

Colorectal Cancer Screening Increases in West Virginia

Cancer prevention and control can make a difference in communities, and West Virginia knows firsthand. The CDC-funded West Virginia Program to Increase Colorectal Cancer Screening worked with a local clinic to increase colorectal cancer screening uptake in the northern panhandle of the state. Wheeling Health Right is a free clinic for low-income patients, and most of its patients were 50 years old or older, the recommended age for colorectal cancer screening. Only 9% of patients at Wheeling Health Right were getting screened.



Through listening to patients about which test they preferred and sending them reminders to make sure they completed screening, the clinic increased its colorectal cancer screening percentage from 9% to 53% in 2017, and then to more than 67% in 2018.