Partner services
Public health term / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Partner services is a public health term which refers to the health intervention given to a client's intimate partners when a client goes to a health care provider requesting health care.
![]() | The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (February 2019) |
Partner notification is a type of partner service, wherein if someone has a contagious disease, the health care provider finding the problem will try to notify that person's partners that they have been exposed to infection. It is a form of contact tracing.
Partner services are important because in some cases a person's health problems are partially caused or sustained by other people. A common example would be that a person visits a doctor because he has an infectious disease. If that disease is also contagious, then that person's close associates may also have the disease. If a physician were to only treat the person who initially requests treatment, then the disease may remain in the community. Instead, principles of partner services dictate that health care should treat all members of a group which transmits infection.