Breakdown in the expedited partner therapy treatment cascade: from reproductive healthcare provider to the pharmacist.

Background: The rising incidence rates of sexually transmitted infections in the United States highlight the need for concurrent treatment of patients and their sexual partners. Expedited partner therapy allows healthcare providers to offer antibiotic prescriptions or medications to an index patient for distribution to their sexual partner(s) without evaluating the partner. We hypothesized that there was a gap between expedited partner therapy policy at the state level and its downstream implementation by community pharmacists.

Pharmacy-level barriers to implementing expedited partner therapy in Baltimore, Maryland.

Background: Addressing record high rates of Chlamydia trachomatis incidence in the United States requires the utilization of effective strategies, such as expedited partner therapy, to reduce reinfection and further transmission. Expedited partner therapy, which can be given as a prescription or medication, is a strategy to treat the sexual partners of index patients diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection without prior medical evaluation of the partners.

Objective: There are multiple steps in the prescription-expedited partner therapy cascade, and we sought to identify pharmacy-level barriers to implementing prescription-expedited partner therapy for Chlamydia trachomatis treatment.