We carried out an intensive process and short-term outcomes evaluation of the Whanganui Regional Health Network’s locally developed Early Pregnancy Assessment Approach (EPAA) in the first half of 2015. This evaluation was commissioned by the Health Promotion Agency (HPA), a Crown entity established under the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Amendment Act 2012. The evaluation aimed to determine how the EPAA ‘works’, who it works for and why in order to support both the Regional Health Network’s refinement of the intervention and the HPA’s critical assessment of EPAA potential for implementation by other primary health care providers nationally. Key informant interviews with service users informed the evaluation results along with interviews with the Regional Health Network’s staff and service delivery partners. Document review was also carried out.
A detailed service model description was developed in the early stages of the evaluation. That description provides a template for other primary health care providers looking to put an EPAA in place in their own areas of the country. The final evaluation report includes practical recommendations for further refinement of the EPPA locally, which have been taken into account by the Regional Health Network as it continues to fine-tune the intervention. The HPA has made the evaluation material available on its website.
