Evaluation of Patient and Provider Perspectives on Routine HIV Screening in Emergency Departments

Routine HIV screening in all health facilities has been recommended by the CDC as a critical strategy to reach undiagnosed HIV patients in order to facilitate linkage to care and enhance HIV prevention efforts. Offering HIV testing in hospital emergency departments is viewed as a particularly important mechanism to reach patients who may not have health insurance or access to regular medical care. To address this issue, the California State Office of AIDS will be launching a program to expand HIV screening in three San Francisco Bay Area hospital emergency departments including: Alameda County Medical Center-Highland Hospital, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center and San Francisco General Hospital. This project will evaluate the implementation process of Routine Testing for HIV in each Emergency Department.