The Sexual Health module is an initiative of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO). Its aim is to measure the amount of STI screening and re-screening that is done by health services.
The module reports on STI screening for all patients as well as screening during pregnancy.To show the target population of interest you can apply the appropriate filters, for example age or gender filters, but any other filter can be used in addition if required.

The reports show the age group of the patients in a bar chart with predefined age groups.

It is based on guidelines from the "National Guide to a Preventative Health Assessment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People" produced by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and NACCHO.

Communicare users won't be able to use the full functionality of this report due to some missing data items. Currently only the screening reports for Chlamydia, Gonorrhoea, HIV and Syphilis are available.



Screening
The module provides graphs to display the amount of screening for the following STI/BBV's:

  • Chlamydia
  • Gonorrhoea
  • Trichomoniasis
  • Syphilis
  • Hepatitis B
  • Hepatitis C
  • HIV


Positive STI follow-up
The module provides a graph to review the follow-up after a postive STI screen.

  • Following a positive STI test result for Chlamydia, Gonorrhoea orTrichomoniasis
  • Full-suite: The amount of testing done for Syphilis and HIV within 3 months of the positive result
  • Rescreen: The amount of retesting done for the same STI within 4 months of treatment


Positive Screening:
At present it is not possible to extract a positive screening from pathology results. A positive screening is indicated based on the following treatments. If any of these has been prescribed within 3 weeks of testing (including date of test) a positive screening will be counted.
CEFTRIAXONE OR PROBENECID: GONORRHOEA
AZITHROMYCIN: CHLAMYDIA
TINIDAZOLE: TRICHOMONIASIS
Full test suite:
A full test suite is completed if Syphilis and HIV testing are done within 3 months of a positive test date.
Follow up testing:
A follow up test has been done when a positive screening (as defined above) is followed by a repeat test for the same STI within 3 weeks to 4 months of treatment.


Testing Patterns
The module provides graphs to review the activity for patients screened/not screened:

  • Screened – number of visits, tests and coverage of tests
  • Not Screened – number of visits

Details for all reports are shown here: Screening Graphs

STI Screening Report

Indicators report data for:

  • Patients with a Visit in the Last 12 Months and for Active and Recent Attenders
  • Recent attenders are patients that have had a visit in the last 6 months.
  • Active attenders are patients that have had 3 visits in the last 2 years.


Visit Definition - check the Clinical Audit Tool User Guide Mappings for your clinical system.

Pathology Results

Screening for STI/BBV's is through pathology testing. The pathology labs send back a variety of test names and some test names cover more than one test.
A list of the pathology test names for each STI/BBV is provided here: Sexual Health Pathology Test Names.
Notes:
QML lab sends back Gonorrhoea and Trichomoniasis results under test names that have the main label of "Chlamydia" (in various forms). The effect of this mislabelling by the pathology company is that the graphs will show an under reporting of Gonorrhoea and Trichomoniasis screening.