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Background: The purpose of this practice is to improve the system for statewide agencies to procure sexual health education for the people of Louisiana. Recognizing the state’s national rankings for STDs in 2014 (#1 for gonorrhea case rates, #1 for congenital syphilis case rates, #2 for primary and secondary syphilis, and #3 for chlamydia case rates), the Louisiana Office of Public Health, STD/HIV Program (SHP) concluded the importance of making it easier for agencies to procure prevention materials in a timely manner.
Program background: SHP receives over 200 orders per year for condoms and sexual health brochures. The method for agencies to submit orders for prevention materials required a paper form. Paper forms had to be printed, completed by the agency, then emailed or faxed to central office. The challenge with paper forms is their ability to be lost or damaged. Also, legibility became an issue with identifying the proper shipping address and contact person for the order. In addition, paper forms were a hindrance to the cost effective model. Hidden costs associated with the paper forms were the purchase of paper, toner, electricity, and labor for lost forms.
Evaluation Methods and Results: In 2016, SHP created a new website called LouisianaHealthHub.org which serves as the central location for sexual health education and resources in the State of Louisiana. This site served as the ideal location to build an electronic ordering system for prevention materials. The social marketing team researched apps for online forms that could be embedded on a webpage powered by WIX. The team settled on 123 Contact Form, a free web form builder that provides automation, security, analytics, and a system to make payments. After the forms were created, they were pilot tested among a small group of agencies who make frequent orders. The groups submitted a mock order and completed an evaluation of the experience. Their feedback was taken into account and adjustments were made to the form for the finalized version.
Conclusions: SHP recognized an opportunity to improve the quality of the procurement process by using the newly developed LouisianaHealthHub.org website as a tool to host electronic procurement. After thorough research, SHP’s Social Marketing Team decided on a free application, 123 Contact Forms, which has great reviews. Since implementation, SHP has received positive reviews regarding the ease of placing orders and the reassurance that orders were received via auto response from the application.
Implications for research and/or practice: Creating an electronic procurement process has streamlined the way agencies can order prevention materials. The benefit of transitioning from paper forms to electronic forms impacts quality improvement measures and is more cost effective. SHP made the change to online orders in April 2017 and will be conducting an qualitative evaluation to measure acceptance intermittently throughout the year.