Member Spotlight: VHAN Pediatric Practices Share Chlamydia Screening Best Practices
During a recent Pediatrics Champion Call, Kylie Cormier, MD, from Old Harding Pediatrics Associates (OHPA), shared best practices for capturing a yearly chlamydia screening from eligible patients. This important screening is part of the pediatric modifier for 2022, and it is also a required quality measure for many payors.
Dr. Cormier and her colleagues have streamlined the screening process, while ensuring that patients and parents feel as comfortable as possible. Find her suggested best practices below:
- Automatically trigger a screening for eligible patients. Patients who need a birth control consult or admit to sexual activity during a physical automatically receive a chlamydia screening during the patient intake process. Before the patient is taken to an exam room, the intake nurse captures a urine sample for chlamydia and gonorrhea screening, as well as a pregnancy test if needed.
- Provide information about why the screening is necessary. Dr. Cormier recommends that nurses provide simple, straightforward answers about chlamydia testing to ensure transparency. Remind patients and their caregivers that insurance requires the routine screening every year.
- Remind the patient that they haven’t done anything wrong. Discussions about sexual activity or STIs can be uncomfortable. Dr. Cormier makes sure to remind her patients that the chlamydia screening is an insurance requirement and best practice for patient care—and they shouldn’t feel ashamed.
- Tie the yearly screening to birth control prescription refills to ensure patients are tested every year.
To watch the entire Pediatric Champion Call recording, visit the Pediatrics page on the VHAN Hub.