Updates from the National STD Quality Improvement Center
The Spotlight
At the end of May, our partners at the Center for Public Health Quality provided the first on-site to STD clinics in New York State, in partnership with the Department of Health, the New York PTC and the Erie County Department of Public Health. This QI project focused on identifying barriers to chlamydia screening in adolescents. Here is what they had to say about the Quality Improvement on-site:
Trainers were knowledgeable, engaging and addressed questions/concerns well
Much positive value in bringing in clinic staff to discuss these issues as a group; everybody seemed to learn from each other and it was important to have all levels of staff to include perspective on the entire process.
Developing the Value Stream Map was one of the most useful pieces of the training; it helped providers review patient processes and flow to identify barriers.
Barriers identified included:
Confidentiality issues-how to allow the patients to report their sexual history without parents
Practices were not currently collecting a first-void urine on all patients
Practices were not routinely asking patients about sexual behavior
EHR does not include sexual risk assessment questions
NY's Nurse Practitioner Consultant will conduct follow-up visits with each clinic following the on-site to address these screening barriers.
"One of the best trainings I've ever been to!"
- Gowri Nagendra, MPH, Program Director at the New York PTC
Next Up...California!
The California Department of Public Health STD Control Branch and the CA STD/HIV PTC (National QI Center) are partnering on an enhanced evaluation project to increase sexual health risk assessment and chlamydia (CT) screening of age-eligible sexually-active adolescents in high volume primary care practices in Fresno, CA. The Fresno Community Regional Center, Ambulatory Care Center will be the first local partner to work with the STDCB and PTC on this quality improvement initiative.
Background:
Fresno County, the geographic target of the quality improvement intervention, consistently experiences the highest CT rates among all of California's 61 local health jurisdictions.
Project:
This QI project will work to integrate routine sexual risk assessments into a primary care practice with the goal of increasing chlamydia screening rates and improving patient outcomes.
The Center for Public Health Quality will conduct an on-site QI Event to increase participating staff's capacity to use rapid cycle/LEAN quality improvement methods to improve clinic practice.
These improvements will improve the health status of the participating clinic's adolescent and young adult patients.
QI Foundational Webinar Series
with the Center for Public Health Quality
We've made the recordings of and resources from the Quality Improvement Foundational Webinar Series with the National Center for Public Health Quality available online at the following two links:
This resource was created by
the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association. It provides helpful tips that can be quickly implemented to improve the environment of your practice for LGBT patients. Chapters include:
This resource is a great tool for providers from the
California Department of Public Health STD Control Branch. We would particularly like to draw your attention to the chapter on
"Sexual Hisotry Taking and Risk Assessment" on page 21.
