Use of an institutional intervention to improve quality of care for adolescents treated in pediatric ambulatory settings for pelvic inflammatory disease

Abstract

Every year approximately 200,000 adolescent girls in the United States are affected by pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and each episode of PID puts these girls at risk for tubal scarring, future infertility and ectopic pregnancy. Despite the efficacy of outpatient regimens in randomized controlled trials, additional research indicates that adolescents diagnosed with PID in outpatient settings often do not receive adequate evaluation, medications, and instructions for self-care at discharge. As a result, patient adherence to therapy and follow-up recommendations may be impaired. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of a quality improvement intervention for outpatient management of PID on provider behavior and patient adherence.