Contact tracing using provider referral: how difficult is it?
Lisa McCann A , Warwick Allan A , Phillip Read A B and Anna McNulty A C DA Sydney Sexual Health Centre, Sydney/Sydney Eye Hospital, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia.
B The Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2034, Australia.
C School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
D Corresponding author. Email: anna.mcnulty@sesiahs.health.nsw.gov.au
Sexual Health 10(5) 472-473 https://doi.org/10.1071/SH13085
Submitted: 31 May 2013 Accepted: 19 July 2013 Published: 30 September 2013
Abstract
Contact tracing using provider referral is often perceived as time-consuming. To assess the workload involved in provider referral at a sexual health clinic, we studied the number of attempts required, the contact method used, the time taken and the success of provider referral for 230 contacts referred over a 3-year period. For 87% of these contacts, a mobile number was available; 78.7% of these were successfully contacted. A median of two calls was required and the median time to complete the contact tracing process was within the same day. In 91% of cases, contact tracing was successful. In our setting, provider notification was not time-consuming.
Additional keywords: mobile phone, partner notification, sexually transmissible infections, workload.
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