Michelle Dowden1
1One Disease, Darwin, Australia
In January 2016 Crusted Scabies was made a Notifiable Disease in the Northern Territory (NT) under the Notifiable Diseases Act NT. Crusted Scabies is notifiable by laboratory on detection of scabies mites. The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) NT is responsible for the public health response.
An essential component of the public health response for Crusted Scabies is CDC informing local health service staff who the clients are with Crusted Scabies and what is required for management including household contacts. Most importantly people who have had Crusted Scabies must have life long follow-up which includes regular skin checks and live in a ‘scabies free zone” to prevent reinfection.
An audit of 488 flies within Clinical Information Systems (CIS) was undertaken. The purpose of the clinical audit was to determine the number of clients with a definite diagnosis of Crusted Scabies (CS) according the CDC case definition. The audit also determined if Crusted Scabies clients had flags and reminders in place for long term follow up and care.
Results. The findings of the audit revealed 85 clients had a definitive diagnosis of Crusted Scabies.
More education is needed around detection, diagnosis and long-term management of Crusted Scabies. The inclusion of electronic prompts within Clinical Information Systems will assist health service staff to provide appropriate, comprehensive and timely of care. In the same way a disease register is able to maintain records of a specific disease or condition for a population.
Biography
Michelle is currently the NT Program Director for One Disease.
Michelle is a Registered Nurse Midwife with 25 years experience conducting health programs that focus on good clinical outcomes and the social determinants of health. The main focus of her work has been with remote indigenous communities and other large indigenous health services throughout Australia both in research and service delivery.
Michelle has a strong background and understanding of Continuous Quality Improvement in Indigenous Primary Healthcare both in research and service delivery. She continues to be involved with research and contributes to peer reviewed publications.