Chlamydia screening: How we can better serve patients

Our recommendations

1. Reacquaint yourself with the USPSTF screening guidelines and commit to following them rigorously in practice. This will necessitate examining your relationship with eligible patients, developing mechanisms to regularly discuss sexual health and STD issues, and consistently providing screening.
2. Make screening a routine part of care at recommended opportunities. If you use an EHR, consider working with the vendor to construct appropriate automatic prompts. Those with traditional systems may want to include a systematic chart addition and audit.
3. Consider becoming a policy advocate. There are serious health system flaws that hinder efforts to stem the chlamydia epidemic. Many of these system flaws are best addressed by state or national policy change and through new incentives for financial rewards for physicians.
4. Actively partner with local public health departments to expand screening services to those at risk. A study by Ward demonstrated that increasing screening in communities with endemic disease might have the greatest effect on the local population and its sexual networks.⁹

CORRESPONDENCE
Wiley D. Jenkins, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, 913 N. Rutledge Street, P.O. Box 19671, Springfield, IL 62794-9671; wjenkins@siumed.edu