A new study shows that real-time electronic medical record alerts for medical assistants significantly increased chlamydia testing in primary care.
The cluster randomized trial across western Pennsylvania involved over 7,300 encounters with women aged 18 to 24. When the alert was active, test orders increased more than threefold compared to usual care.
In the intervention group, 13.2% of encounters resulted in a chlamydia test, versus only 3.8% in the control group. The adjusted odds ratio was 2.74.
The alert appeared when a medical assistant opened a patient's chart and no screening had been documented in the past year. Importantly, the effect was seen during both reproductive health and non-reproductive health visits.
However, the same alert showed no benefit in obstetrics and gynecology practices, likely due to different workflows and higher baseline screening rates.
Given that chlamydia is the most common notifiable sexually transmitted infection in the U.S., this staff-directed approach could help reduce pelvic inflammatory disease and related long-term complications.