Sexually Transmitted Diseases  >  Program Guidelines  >  Surveillance and Data Management

Program Operations Guidelines for STD Prevention
Surveillance and Data Management

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Appendix S-C

SAMPLE SEROLOGY LABORATORY SITE VISIT REPORT

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Region ____________ Worker ___________ Date of Visit ____/____/____

Laboratory Name and Address	____________________ ____________________ ____________________	Contact Person _______________
		Phone Number ________________

Type of Laboratory [ ] Hosp [ ] PMD [ ] Clinic [ ] Public Agency [ ] Private

Type of Testing

    Nontreponemal [ ]RPR   [ ]VDRL         [ ]ART     [ ]Other _____________

    Treponemal     [ ]TPPA [ ]FTA-ABS    [ ]Other _____________

Person or Unit Responsible for Reporting _____________________________

How is STS information maintained at the facility?

____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________

Format of Report (Attach sample) [ ] Lab slip [ ] Report form [ ]Electronic

How often are reports submitted to the Health Department?

Please describe reporting process____________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

Components of the Report (Match to state requirements)

[ ] Type of specimen [ ] Name of patient [ ] Patient DOB

[ ] Specific test [ ] Age of patient [ ] Address of patient

[ ] Date of test [ ] Physician/Agency name [ ] Medical record number

[ ] Result [ ] Physician/Agency address

Time Period for the Evaluation

Begin date: ____/____/____ End date ____/____/____

How many serologies were done in this laboratory during the time period?

How many reactive serologies were there during the time period?

How many reactive serologies does lab state were reported to the Health Department?

Proportion of reactive serologies reported to the health department ____% (See Worksheet if needed.)

Mean reporting time for the laboratory ____________________ days. (See Worksheet if needed.)

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SAMPLE SEROLOGY LABORATORY SITE VISIT REPORT WORKSHEET

Completeness of Reporting

All laboratories are required to submit reports of reactive serology to state or local health departments. The program should decide in advance the minimum percentage of reactives reported that is acceptable. 100% of reactives should be reported to the health department, but the actual percentage required is a local area decision.

A. How many reactive serologies were documented at this laboratory during the time period?_________

B. How many reactive serologies were reported to the health department from this laboratory during the time period?________

C. Divide B by A = ____________________= Proportion of reactive serologies reported by the laboratory to the STD program or Completeness of reporting.

Completeness of Information

Completeness of information assesses the degree to which laboratories are providing complete information in their reports. For example, a laboratory may report 100% of its tests but provide patient names for only 60%, clinician names for only 70%, and serology titers for only 90%. The following steps will provide an indicator of completeness of information.

A. How many data fields are required to be reported for each lab report (e.g., patient name, address, age, date of birth, race, sex, test type, test date, test result, submitting clinic/clinician name and telephone number, etc.)?

B. In separate categories, record the number of laboratory reports with complete information, and the number missing one, two, three, four, or more data fields.

C. Divide each of the numbers in B by the number of laboratory reports reviewed to obtain the percentage of reports with complete information, or with one, two, three, four, or more items missing.

Timeliness

State statutes regulate the time period within which reports of reactive serologies must be submitted to the health department. This time period is the time from when the laboratory receives the specimen to the time that the health department receives notification of a positive serology.

A. Pull representative samples of reactive serology received by the STD program from the laboratory and for the time period under evaluation.

B. For each serology reviewed write down:

    date serology received by lab. ___/___/___

    date report received by health dept ___/___/___

    days btwn serology & report rec. __________

C. Add the column "days between serology and report received."

D. Divide the sum of "days between serology and report received" by the number of serologies evaluated.

E. The result will equal the mean reporting time for the laboratory.

Periodicity of Laboratory Evaluation

The STD prevention program should evaluate laboratory reporting of reactive serologies regularly. The program manager should look at resources that are available locally when determining how often to visit laboratories. Laboratories with a large volume should be visited more frequently than laboratories with few reactives. Laboratories slow in reporting should be visited more frequently. At a minimum, all laboratories within the program's jurisdiction should be visited at least once per year. The number of visits to a laboratory is a local program decision, based on laboratory reporting, program manpower, and program resources.

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