We Have All Been Working in Our Own Little Silos Forever: Exploring a Cross-Sector Response to Child Maltreatment.

Objective: A child protective services (CPS) investigation for maltreatment signals risk for childhood toxic stress and poor health outcomes. Despite this, communication between child welfare and health care professionals is rare. We present a qualitative exploration of experiences with, barriers to, and hopes for cross-sector collaboration for children with suspected maltreatment.

Public health communication with frontline clinicians during the first wave of the 2009 influenza pandemic.

Context: During public health emergencies, office-based frontline clinicians are critical partners in the detection, treatment, and control of disease. Communication between public health authorities and frontline clinicians is critical, yet public health agencies, medical societies, and healthcare delivery organizations have all called for improvements.

Objectives: Describe communication processes between public health and frontline clinicians during the first wave of the 2009 novel influenza A(H1N1) pandemic; assess clinicians' use of and knowledge about public health guidance; and assess clinicians' perceptions and preferences about communication during a public health emergency.

Urgent care providers' knowledge and attitude about public health reporting and pertussis control measures: implications for informatics.

Objectives: We assessed urgent care providers' knowledge about public health reporting, guidelines, and actions for the prevention and control of pertussis; attitudes about public health reporting and population-based data; and perception of reporting practices in their clinic.

Methods: We identified the 106 providers (95% are physicians) employed in 28 urgent care clinics owned by Intermountain Healthcare located throughout Utah and Southern Idaho. We performed a descriptive, cross-sectional survey and assessed providers' knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors associated with population-based data and public health mandates and recommendations.

Clinician use and acceptance of population-based data about respiratory pathogens: implications for enhancing population-based clinical practice.

Front line health care providers (HCPs) play a central role in endemic (pertussis), epidemic (influenza) and pandemic (avian influenza) infectious disease outbreaks. Effective preparedness for this role requires access to and awareness of population-based data (PBD). We investigated the degree to which this is currently achieved among HCPs in Utah by surveying a sample about access, awareness and attitudes concerning PBD in clinical practice.

Rapid identification of hospitalized patients at high risk for MRSA carriage.

Patients who are asymptomatic carriers of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are major reservoirs for transmission of MRSA to other patients. Medical personnel are usually not aware when these high-risk patients are hospitalized. We developed and tested an enterprise-wide electronic surveillance system to identify patients at high risk for MRSA carriage at hospital admission and during hospitalization.