- Collection:
- Atlanta University and Clark Atlanta University Theses and Dissertations
- Title:
- A study of the effectiveness of the early and periodic screening, diagnosis and treatment (EPSDT) program outreach as determined by participants from four health centers in Fulton County, Georgia, 1988
- Creator:
- Ekpono, Bassey E.
- Date of Original:
- 1988-01-01
- Subject:
- Degrees, Academic
Dissertations, Academic - Location:
- United States, Georgia, Fulton County, Atlanta, 33.749, -84.38798
- Medium:
- theses
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- application/pdf
- Description:
- The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) program outreach in four health centers in Fulton County, Georgia. A total of 200 subjects were randomly selected among the participants from the four health centers. Using a descriptive survey design, a questionnaire was developed, pre-tested, and administered to the subjects. Responses were statistically analyzed. The findings were: 1. Although EPSDT program outreach is the linking pin for the EPSDT program, little emphasis seemed to be placed on outreach activities. Concerns were only placed on screening, diagnosis, and treatment without noticing the importance of the outreach component of the program. 2. The rate of broken appointments were high in all four health centers selected for this study. 3. Records to find out how many appointments were made and how many were kept were not available. 4. There was substantial evidence of a shortage of staff to conduct the outreach activities. Out of the four part-time EPSDT outreach workers for the four health centers, two worked in rotation to other health centers from Monday through Wednesday and returned to their seemingly permanent health center from Thursday through Friday. 5. There was no transportation of the EPSDT eligible clients to and from screening facilities or health centers. 6. Of the four health centers chosen for this study, only one had babysitting arrangements and these arrangements were inadequate to accommodate the number of children that used the center. 7. There was an overlapping jurisdiction whereby agencies that were supposed to inform the EPSDT eligible clients delayed informing on the expectation that the other agency would take the lead. Eventually, all the agencies ended up not doing what they were supposed to do. 8. Informing was lower than the federal standard which stipulated that at least 95 percent of the eligible clients be informed. 9. Telephone calls were not effectively utilized in the informing aspect. 10. Personal contact with families to inform them about EPSDT was more effective than mailing letters. 11. EPSDT workers at each of the four centers did not know, and did not have any way of knowing, the number of clients expected each month, nor did the director of the EPSDT program know the number of clients sent to a particular health center.
- External Identifiers:
- Metadata URL:
- http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/cau.td:1988_ekpono_bassey_e
- Rights Holder:
- Clark Atlanta University
- Holding Institution:
- Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library
- Rights:
-
