Prospective study of the effectiveness of electronic patient records (EPR) in rapid-cycle assessment of treatment and partner notification outcomes for patients with genital Chlamydia and gonorrhoea infection

Gary Brook (1) , Lovemore Rusere (2) , Lizz Coppin-Browne (2) , Stephanie Mcdonagh (2) , John Mcsorley (2)

1 Central Middlesex Hospital
2 North West london hospitals NHS Trust

Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of EPR in facilitating multiple, rapid measurements of treatment and partner notification (PN) outcomes for chlamydia and gonorrhoea. Methods: In two sexual health clinics, we measured the proportion of patients with chlamydia and gonorrhoea who had been treated within 4 weeks of diagnosis and the proportion where at least one of their partners had been treated. These outcomes were measured monthly for 6 months and changes in recording practice were instituted when necessary. Results: It took 8 hours to capture and analyse the data for 89 patients in month 1. The health advisers subsequently entered data into searchable fields to facilitate better data capture. As a result, by month 6 it took only 1.5 hours to measure these outcomes using an electronic search. It had previously taken two days to perform the same analysis using paper records. In month 1, successful treatment was recorded in 26/27 (96%) patients with gonorrhoea and 57/61 (93%) with chlamydia and there was successful PN for gonorrhoea and chlamydia patients in 19/27 (70%) and 39/61 (64%). By month 6, the recorded outcomes were 30/31 (97%), 81/86 (94%) for successful treatment and 28/31 (90%) and 74/86 (86%) for successful PN respectively. Conclusions Frequent rapid clinical outcome monitoring is easily attained using EPR as long as the data is entered into searchable fields. Our treatment and PN success for chlamydia and gonorrhoea are well above national targets which may be attributable both to the use of EPR and better data capture.

Mots clés: C.TRACHOMATIS; GONORRHOEA; HEALTH SERV RESEARCH; PARTNER NOTIFICATION

Gary Brook, Lovemore Rusere, Lizz Coppin-Browne, Stephanie Mcdonagh, John Mcsorley. Prospective study of the effectiveness of electronic patient records (EPR) in rapid-cycle assessment of treatment and partner notification outcomes for patients with genital Chlamydia and gonorrhoea infection. Sexually Transmitted Infections, 2010, 87 (2), pp.152. ⟨10.1136/sti.2010.042440⟩. ⟨hal-00584274⟩