With nearly 100% of community health centers utilizing electronic health records (EHR) to care for patients, focus has pivoted from implementation and new workflow development to enhancement in order to drive value and reflect patient needs and population trends. EHR technology presents potential opportunities and significant constraints. Providers frequently document and share potentially sensitive information in the EHR, such as risk for intimate partner violence (IPV), consistent offers of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), or patient sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). Capturing such information can be immensely helpful in providing care tailored to individuals’ needs, but additionally challenges teams to develop workflows that keep the data private rather than risk harm to patients through improper or unintended disclosure.

Health centers are increasingly interested in embedding oral Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) programs into primary care, which calls for the embedding of PrEP care processes into electronic health record (EHR) systems. Health centers have had success with automation in HIV testing, and are looking to apply automated algorithms, order sets, and templates to the development of PrEP programs. This resource outlines EHR and health information technology (IT) configurations and tools that support PrEP care processes and provides examples of successful implementation from health centers and primary care settings.

In the 2022 UDS, United States health centers reported 7,328,565 of their 16,835,841 eligible medical patients (43.53%) were tested for HIV at least once after their 15th birthday and before their 66th birthday.

Identifying candidates for PrEP can be challenging but not impossible. The first step to finding the right candidates involves understanding the criteria for PrEP. Not everyone is a great candidate for PrEP or can adhere to the frequent testing and monitoring required of PrEP patients. Some patients are comfortable using condoms and other HIV prevention methods, and providers should respect and affirm their decision.

HIV testing is one of the many ways we can End the HIV Epidemic. HITEQ's latest blogs offers strategies for leveraging your EHR to make HIV screening a breeze at your health center. 

These interactive infographics include HIV Indicators as well as information about underserved populations and patients who may be at increased risk of acquiring HIV, at the state level. Select your state in the upper right to get started. 

This brief presents an overview of how health centers can utilize telehealth for PrEP access, or TelePrEP, for comprehensive care, and includes innovations and resources that health centers can utilize to extend these services to their patient populations.

According to the Rural health Information Hub, the risk of contracting HIV can be greatly reduced through Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), but the medication must be taken every day and patients need follow-up appointments every 3 months. Some patients often don't have access to it due to stigma, distance from the nearest specialist, and a shortage of primary care providers willing to prescribe and monitor PrEP.

The goal of this guide is to provide up-to-date information and best practices for coding, billing, and denial resolution for PrEP and PEP services. Health department staff are encouraged to share this resource with grantees, community partners, and other health care providers billing for HIV prevention services.

Health centers funded by the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP) must submit the Ryan White Services Report (RSR) annually and often main-tain separate databases from their EHR to do so. This document summarizes resources related to integrating RWHAP data reporting requirements into EHRs, including specific vendors, as well as those related to improving HIV service delivery using technology.

Primary care plays a key role in ending the HIV epidemic. The Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative launched across HHS in 2019, setting forth four key strategies also called the “four pillars” of ending the HIV epidemic. Primary care in federally qualified health centers figures centrally into these efforts, evidenced by the addition of several HIV screening and prevention measures and metrics in the Uniform Data System (UDS) reporting. This webinar reviewed the outcomes of the first year of HIV Screening and Prevention reporting on the UDS, highlight opportunities for quality improvement, and discussed funding opportunities.

As health centers integrate PrEP for HIV prevention into their primary care services, it is important to align with the latest guidance and research. The PrEP checklist from UNC School of Medicine's North Carolina HIV Training & Education Center offers step-by-step detailed guidance for providing PrEP. This checklist can be used to inform workflow, EHR, and other health IT updates including order sets and clinical decision support. It can also be used as a reference for providers who are newer to providing PrEP who are prompted or alerted to a patient's potential need for HIV prevention services.

We can only End the HIV Epidemic if we work together, and that includes data sharing. Sharing important information, such as HIV test results, can help ensure optimal care for people at risk for or living with HIV coming to or from different health centers. Check out these strategies and tools to learn some tried and true strategies for data-sharing between health centers. 

What if we told you your electronic health record (EHR) was one of the keys to ending the HIV epidemic (EHE)? Your EHR is a powerful tool that can support increases in HIV testing, access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for people at risk for HIV, and so much more! View our HITEQ Highlights webinar on June 8th to learn more about leveraging your EHR through the use of digital tools and innovative strategies!

HIV testing is one of the many ways we can End the HIV Epidemic. HITEQ's latest blog post offers strategies for leveraging your EHR to make HIV screening a breeze at your health center. 

This training is open to all health centers, PCAs, and HCCNs. The focus will be Practice Analytics v12 and UDS 2020 reporting for Greenway Intergy Users, so right on time for those preparing for CY2020 UDS reporting from Greenway.

This presentation highlights Greenway Intergy functionality to support Ending the HIV Epidemic, including setting up health reminders around HIV screening and prevention, HIV flowsheets, and recommendations for optimizing the EHR for PrEP (coding for PrEP, setting up care plans, reminders for future labs, etc.).