The Whanganui Regional Health Network’s Early Pregnancy Assessment Approach (EPAA) is designed to improve identification and management of early pregnancy risk factors within the primary care setting. It is a comprehensive model that includes an early pregnancy screening tool for general practice, maternity support roles and strengthened referral pathways and information sharing between general practice and other health and social services. This implementation evaluation was commissioned by HPA in 2015. It describes the EPAA, identifies successes and challenges of early implementation in Whanganui and provides recommendations for wider implementation of the EPAA.
Purpose
The Early Pregnancy Assessment Approach (EPAA) evaluation objectives were to:
• Identify and describe the key EPAA service model components;
• Describe the process of WRHN EPAA implementation and assess process quality including identifying components of the EPAA which have been implemented as planned and components which have been modified (when, how and why);
• Assess the success of specific short-term outcomes identified in the EPAA Programme Logic Model;
• Identify challenges associated with EPAA implementation and, where relevant, how these have been addressed; and,
• Drawing on evaluation results and analysis provide recommendations for wider implementation of an EPAA.
Methodology
The EPAA evaluation study has been undertaken consistent with the design detailed in the Refined Evaluation Plan prepared by Whakauae in March 2015. The low risk, observational research design incorporated a mix of methods including key informant interviews, an online survey, review of quantitative data extracted by the WRHN from their EPAT database and document review.