Utilization of Hormone Replacement Therapy in a Family Care Setting

摘要

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is known to increase life expectancy and improve quality of life for postmenopausal women and to represent only modest risks. The Family Medicine Center, an ambulatory care clinic, undertook a Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) review project to assess the utilization of HRT in women over the age of 50 (total number of patients, 185) from July 1994 through July 1996. Reasons for non-utilization of HRT by both patient and physician are analyzed. The risks and benefits of HRT in this population were tabulated and reviewed and incorporated into an educational format for patient and physician use. Information on HRT would be an effective subject for patient education material and should be conscientiously pursued as such by primary care physicians to provide informed decisions by women in the subject age group.