Patient-Collected Swabs for Vaginitis

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

6-30-2025

Publication Title

Michigan Medical Education and Health Bulletin

Abstract

Introduction: Vaginitis is a common symptom for patients presenting to OBGYN clinics. Vaginitis can occur with a variety of symptoms such as odor, discharge and irritation and may occur due to many etiologies. Often empiric treated is utilized to expediate treatment but may incorrectly treat the underlying cause and potentially lead to spread of infection. There is data including the CDC that supports self-collected vaginal swabs to accurately diagnose patients. The patient can expediate appropriate diagnosis and treatment with self-collected swabs. We initiated a protocol for patient collected vaginal swabs during a nurse visit at Corewell Dearborn OBGYN office over the past year. Methods: This is a quality improvement project to evaluate the uptake patient collect swabs from June 9th, 2024 to February 24th, 2025. The number and results of the patient collected swabs were analyzed. Results: During the nine months between June 2024 to February 2025, a total of 286 patients collected self-swabs at our office. 62% of patients did have an infection or vaginal flora imbalance compared to 38% of patients who tested negative. The most common infection was bacterial vaginosis at 29%, followed by candida at 19%, and 10% of patients had both bacterial vaginosis and candida. More importantly, 3% of patients had a sexually transmitted infection. Conclusions: The results from our study revealed that at our office the protocol for patient-collected swabs was successfully initiated. We were able to correctly identify the patients with candida, bacterial vaginosis and sexually transmitted infections. As a result, we treated these patients with appropriate anti-fungal and antibiotics. The diagnosis of sexually transmitted infections allowed for both our patients and their partners to be treated with expediated partner therapy as well as prevented long term consequences.

Volume

3

Issue

2 Suppl

First Page

A127

Comments

10th Annual Michigan Summit on Quality Improvement, Patient Safety & High Value Care, May 22, 2025, Troy, MI

Last Page

A127

DOI

10.69735/​001c.141326

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