General practice intervention to increase opportunistic screening for chlamydia.
We describe an 18-month intervention that was designed to improve opportunistic screening for chlamydia in General Practice. Key strategies included engaging and informing general practitioners, adopting a simplified screening protocol, providing feedback on practice testing performance and developing resources for use with patients. This uncontrolled before and after study found that the overall impact on testing was modest and largely transient, and was insufficient to impact on the current chlamydia epidemic. Major additional measures would be required to further substantially increase testing levels. These could include financial incentives linked to screening performance and increased community awareness to increase patient demand for testing.
Merritt
Tony D
TD
Hunter New England Population Health, Hunter New England Area Health Service, Locked Bag 10, Wallsend, NSW 2287, Australia. tony.merritt@hnehealth.nsw.gov.au
Durrheim
David N
DN
Hope
Kirsty
K
Byron
Paul
P
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001315:Australia; D002690:Chlamydia Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control; D005194:Family Practice / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000458:organization & administration; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011322:Primary Prevention / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations