Leveraging Public and Private Funding to Implement Opt-out HIV Screening Programs in Rural and Urban Emergency Departments in South Carolina Discovered a High Rate of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Infection in Black Patients

Phillip Moschella; Smith Heavner; Susan Cordero Romero; Jess Knapp; Prerana Roth; Alain H Litwin

Leveraging Public and Private Funding to Implement Opt-out HIV Screening Programs in Rural and Urban Emergency Departments in South Carolina Discovered a High Rate of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Infection in Black Patients

J Healthc Sci Humanit. 2021 Fall;11(1):163-172.

Authors

Phillip Moschella¹, Smith Heavner¹, Susan Cordero Romero¹, Jess Knapp¹, Prerana Roth², Alain H Litwin²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Emergency Medicine, Prisma Health Upstate Affiliate, Greenville SC 29607.
² Department of Internal Medicine, Prisma Health Upstate Affiliate, Greenville SC 29607.

PMID: 36818204
PMCID: PMC9930519

Abstract

The new epicenter of the ongoing HIV epidemic in the United States is the South. Specifically, South Carolina (SC) is listed a priority state as part of the CDC's Ending the Epidemic Plan for America. A novel opt-out HIV screening program was implemented in one rural and one urban Emergency Department (ED) within a large SC health system. Leveraging both public and private funding sources, which made both the testing and linkage processes cost neutral, ED based screening was provided for 2304 Black patients which represents an 44% increase. As part of this screening program a total of 50 individuals were linked to care of which 29 were Black. The rate of HIV positivity for Black patients using this ED based screening program was nearly double that of the baseline health system screening. This program's utilization of the health system electronic health record (EHR) and funding from various sources may provide a model for legislative and public health entities to combat the HIV epidemic in the South.

Keywords: ED; Emergency Department; HIV; Human Immunodeficiency Virus; South Carolina.