WHY WE DID THIS STUDY
Health center sites funded by HRSA provide primary health care to millions of patients each year and are critical to efforts to test patients for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and reduce its spread. Since 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended routine HIV testing-i.e., that patients be tested as a routine part of care and be told they will be tested unless they decline.
This approach aims to expand testing to a wider patient population and increase testing rates. We did this study to determine the extent to which HRSA funded sites adopted four practices that CDC recommended: (1) routine HIV testing of all patients 13-64 years of age; (2) not requiring prevention counseling for all patients; (3) gaining patient consent for the HIV test in the same way as for other screening and diagnostic tests; and (4) providing HIV tests as standard, opt-out tests.
HOW WE DID THIS STUDY
We analyzed survey responses from 324 HRSA-funded sites; the results are projectable to the estimated population of 5,275 sites that provide primary care. We determined the extent to which sites adopted the four practices and how Federal recommendations influenced their written HIV testing policies. We also asked sites to describe factors that affected their adoption of these practices and their provision of HIV testing.
