Evaluation 2020

STI Services Needs Assessment: Engaging Health Care Providers through Collaboration and Partnerships 

10-21-2020 17:55

To address an increase in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Colorado, state, local and federal partners collectively developed an assessment identifying capacity building needs among STI services providers. Previous work in this area centered around traditional STI service sites such as STI and family planning clinics. Recognizing the role of non-traditional healthcare venues that provide STI services, this assessment purposely included a variety of STI services sites including urgent care and school-based health centers in addition to traditional sites. This assessment sought to shine light on technical assistance needs associated with providing culturally responsive STI services. The results indicate that multilevel collaboration was an effective approach for developing a comprehensive assessment and utilizing social exchange theory to engage providers yielded a high response rate (54%) among both traditional and non-traditional sites. The assessment findings will inform technical assistance plans to address providers’ needs and ensure quality STI services across Colorado. 

Empowering and collaborative evaluation methodologies allow public health agencies to understand the assets and gaps that exist within priority communities. 1 The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) seeks to build capacity to provide culturally responsive STI services by leveraging existing healthcare assets in communities with high rates of STIs also known as communities of epidemiological significance. Previous efforts in this area had centered around traditional STI services sites such as STI, Public Health and Family Planning clinics. Traditional STI service sites are not available in every community, and many communities rely on non-traditional healthcare values such as urgent care centers, AIDS service organizations, retail clinics and school based health centers for STI screening and treatment. To understand the STI screening resources that exist and the capacity building needs among these healthcare providers, CDPHE partnered with the Denver Prevention Training Center and National Association of STD Directors to implement the Colorado STI Services Assessment. This multi-level collaboration resulted in a statewide response from 86 providers (54%) from a variety of STI service settings, and revealed several target areas for capacity building including clinical protocols for STI treatment and management, training around health issues affecting LGBTQ individuals and provision of printed waiting rooms materials that speak to health issues affecting people of color and people who identify as LGBTQ.

 

This presentation will cover the collaborative process, which was grounded in elements of the collective impact model 2, to engage federal, state and local partners in the process of developing a survey instrument, analyzing and interpreting data and and disseminating and utilizing the results of the assessment for targeted capacity building. The presentation will include the challenges encountered in engaging stakeholders with competing interests and how collective voices were engaged throughout the needs assessment process. Additionally, this project employed social exchange theory to increase response rate among healthcare providers. 4 It is estimated that the response rates for surveys among providers are, on average, 10% lower than for other segments of the population, due to demanding work schedules. 3 This presentation will review social exchange theory and how it was successfully utilized to increase response rates among healthcare providers and how multi-level collaboration along with social exchange theory yielded a good response from both traditional and non-traditional healthcare delivery settings.  

  1. 1. Wandersman, A., & Fetterman, D. (2007). Empowerment Evaluation %J American journal of evaluation. 28(2), 179-198. 
  2. 2. Flood, J., Minkler, M., Hennessey Lavery, S., Estrada, J., & Falbe, J. (2015). The Collective Impact Model and Its Potential for Health Promotion:Overview and Case Study of a Healthy Retail Initiative in San Francisco. 42(5), 654-668. doi:10.1177/1090198115577372
  3. Cummings, S. M., Savitz, L. A., & Konrad, T. R. (2001). Reported response rates to mailed physician questionnaires. Health services research, 35(6), 1347-1355. 
  4. Dillman, Don A., et al. Internet, Phone, Mail, and Mixed-Mode Surveys : The Tailored Design Method, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, p. 24.



Statistics
0 Favorited
8 Views
1 Files
0 Shares
4 Downloads

Related Entries and Links

No Related Resource entered.

Tags and Keywords

​
Attachment(s)
pdf file
Engaging Health Care Providers through Collaboration and...   267 KB   1 version
Uploaded - 10-21-2020
To address an increase in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Colorado, state, local and federal partners collectively developed an assessment identifying capacity building needs among STI services providers. Recognizing the role of non-traditional healthcare venues that provide STI services, this assessment purposely included a variety of STI services sites including urgent care and school-based health centers in addition to traditional sites. This assessment sought to shine light on technical assistance needs associated with providing culturally responsive STI services.