Cervical cancer screening from the public health perspective.

Many state health departments have a significant role in cervical cancer screening. Given that role, a group of public health personnel from eight southeastern states drafted a set of questions and quality assurance issues to be discussed with a laboratory under consideration as a contract provider of cytology services. The major points of concern included: (1) quality of laboratory services (accreditation, personnel, facilities and operational and quality control procedures); (2) quality of sampling (including techniques used and the training and monitoring of sample takers); (3) terminology for cytology reporting; and (4) protocols used for diagnostic evaluation of abnormal Papanicolaou smears.