| Vision Statement | Our vision is to decrease healthcare disparities associated with poor medical follow-up after sexual assault by implementing a multidisciplinary plan to improve primary care follow-up for patients cared for in our Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program. |
| Team Objectives | Our objective was to develop an intervention plan that would bridge the communication gap between acute and follow-up care and provide a caregiver education curriculum. Our project assumption was to involve a small sample size because of the expected loss to follow-up. Stakeholders included patients (improved care), caregivers (education), and the community (support mechanism for this patient population). Our measures of success were a 25% increase over reported national average 2-week follow-up rates in this population, tracked ordering and completion of laboratory testing prior to 2-week follow-up visit, and 100% scheduling of 2-week follow-up visits. |
| Success Factors | We improved follow-up rates by 25% compared to what has been historically reported (31%–35%). |
| Barriers | The largest barrier we faced was the inability to communicate with patients after the initial encounter because many patients refused follow-up communication and some patients were homeless without communication means. The next largest barrier was lack of transportation for the follow-up appointments. Finally, we were not able to access the health records for all of the patients because some of them received follow-up care outside our health system. |
| Lessons Learned | The single most important piece of advice to provide another team embarking on a similar initiative is to be prepared for unanticipated results. We were surprised by the number of people who were homeless, without any means of communication, and/or without transportation. This made us more aware of the fundamental lack of resources in our study population. |