Take-home Program, Distribution
Participants preferred the take-home EPT kits over paper prescriptions due to the fewer steps for treatment of sex partners but recognized it was likely a shared decision between patient and clinician.It depends on the patient’s situation. You need to discuss with the patient if they are willing or want to dispense medication to a partner or if a prescription will be effective. (Participant 16)A process barrier observed by some participants was a delay in the ED pharmacist filling the take-home EPT kit, with one clinician noting that the patient had to wait 30 minutes after discharge for the kit.Factors outside the control of emergency clinicians, including the patient’s actions, were frequently cited as barriers to the implementation of EPT. Half of the participants were concerned that the success of EPT depended on patient factors, such as delivering the take-home kit to their sex partner or filling the paper prescription. They worried that the patient would no longer have contact with their sex partner or would not deliver the take-home kit or prescription to their sex partner.The biggest [barrier] is if they can’t get in touch with their partner again - I don’t even know this partner so I’m not going to give them the prescription. (Participant 6)