Short Report # 3
An Evaluation of the STI Surveillance in the Summerville County
Importance of Evaluation
According to CDC, surveillance is the ongoing systemic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health related data which is essential for planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health practice (Lee et al, 2010). Surveillance system evaluation should be done periodically to assess the effectiveness, relevance and impact of the surveillance system
(Lee et al, 2010). Evaluation of the surveillance system is of importance because it will help ensure that data collection resource is used efficiently and that public health problems is monitored effectively (Lee et al, 2010). The surveillance system …show more content…
The main objective of this surveillance system is to assess the status of STIs in Summerville and identify the magnitude, distribution, changes in agents in the cities of Summerville County. The other objective is to provide a basis through which we can prioritize clinical and educational resources in the STI Surveillance system to ultimately plan public health action and resources. The surveillance system should include a clear case definition for the STIs. The case definition should be distinct for each of the STIs measured in the surveillance (i.e. Chlamydia, Gonorrhea,
Syphilis, and HIV) and should include clinical manifestations and laboratory confirmation.
Having a uniform case definition will ensure standardization of the data collected. Also, case definition for each disease is linked to the health data through ICD-9 or 10 codes representation in the data set (Lee et al, 2010). Description of the system should be done with a flow chart showing inputs and outputs, data flow, and surveillance processes (Lee et al, 2010).
Resources
Due to limited public health funding, resources should be limited to personnel …show more content…
Questions needed to be answered should be specified and how the information obtained will be applied in the society – all of these comes under evaluation (Lee et al, 2010). It should be assessed during the evaluation that whether the resources are adequate or not, and if required they can be reallocated (Lee et al, 2010).
Credible Evidence
The STIs surveillance system has provided useful data which helps the stakeholders to better understand the occurrence of STIs in the Summerville County. There should be detailed assessment of various attributed of surveillance system such as simplicity, flexibility, data quality, acceptability, sensitivity, predictive value positive, representativeness, timeliness, and stability. In reference to STI Surveillance, the attributes that can attributed are simplicity (simple
STI surveillance system and ease of operation), flexibility (ability to adapt to changing pattern in
STIs), data quality (complete and valid data), acceptability (willingness among persons and organizations to participate in STI surveillance), sensitivity (ability to detect STIs outbreaks