Gaps/inconsitencies in Primary care suggestions

[Lonna B]

Hello, I am about to start my last year in NP school and we have to do a thesis on a primary care topic.  I'm kind of stumped for ideas so I was wondering if anyone of you who are practicing right now has any suggestions on areas in primary care that are inconsistent or have gaps.  It could be anything from various screenings to processes etc.  I would like to do a topic that is pretty relevant to todays world. I am interested in pregnant or pediatric populations; however, at this point I would consider any populations

[AnnieNP, MSN, NP]

Patient's resistence for screening colonoscopies.

 

[djmatte, ADN, MSN, RN, NP]

If we’re talking clinical care gaps, the typical ones in your preferred areas could bar fairly broad. For GYN, Pap smears, std testing for at risk groups, or even depression screening can be common care gaps. Pediatrics usually surround well child screenings or vaccinations. As noted, colonoscopies are huge in primary care, but I find that going down with more amenable options like cologuard. 

[CommunityRNBSN, BSN, RN]

I’m an RN, not an NP. But in our office there’s a huge problem of (lack of) communication among referred specialists. So our primary care office refers to Diabetes Specialty Clinic, and from then on, the PCP ignores the A1C of 13, because “DSC manages that.”  The patient also gets referred to ophthalmology but never goes and nobody in the primary office ever notices that he never went so his eyes continue to get worse. He gets referred to psychiatry and the patient reports “they prescribed me some pills and they help me” but we don’t know what they are because we don’t get records from psych. So everyone is working in a silo and there’s no coordination.