Gonorrhea prevention and clinical care in the private sector: lessons learned and priorities for quality improvement

Sex Transm Dis. 2006 Nov;33(11):652-62. doi: 10.1097/01.olq.0000216030.65618.0e.

Abstract

We reviewed literature on gonorrhea prevention and clinical care in the private sector, the setting where most gonorrhea cases in the United States are now diagnosed. Although most private-sector health settings had a low prevalence of gonorrhea (0.1-2.5%), some private emergency departments and specialty clinics that serve a large number of high-risk or infected patients had prevalences ranged from 1.7% to 11.0%. Studies of diverse settings and populations suggest that, in general, diagnostic testing of symptomatic patients (69-83%), appropriate treatment (61-100%), and case reporting (64-94%) are delivered more commonly than risk assessment for asymptomatic patients (15-28%), routine screening of pregnant women (31-77%), risk-reduction counseling (35-78%), and sex partner management (0-82%). To sustain the recent declines in gonorrhea incidence in the United States, private-sector providers and health systems must continue to offer gonorrhea prevention and clinical services and consider implementing interventions to improve delivery of risk assessment, risk-reduction counseling, and partner management services.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Diagnostic Tests, Routine / standards
  • Female
  • Gonorrhea / diagnosis*
  • Gonorrhea / prevention & control*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Mass Screening / methods
  • Neisseria gonorrhoeae / immunology
  • Prevalence
  • Private Practice / standards*
  • Quality Assurance, Health Care*
  • Serologic Tests / standards*
  • United States / epidemiology