HITEQ Highlights Webinar
Please join Dr. Irene Stafford, OB/GYN from the University of Texas Houston Maternal-Fetal Medicine Center in an upcoming presentation focused on using common place EHR technology to increase STI and HIV testing. In her talk, Dr. Stafford will describe recent research demonstrating a decrease in transmission of congenital syphilis by the implementation of routine EHR strategies for best practice alerts. Her work demonstrates thoughtful ways of how the EHR can serve as an educational tool for...
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.
Using telehealth to expand access to PrEP
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.
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.
Training for Health Centers
In this session, attendees learned from the HITEQ Center and Housing Works about the TelePrEP model. It also showcased the successes and challenges Housing Works faced with regards to their TelePrEP program.
HITEQ Highlights Webinar
Is your health center currently in the process of implementing or revamping your pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) workflow? This HITEQ webinar taught participants how to use our PrEP Process Mapping Toolkit, which is designed to support team-based learning, reflection, and action on the use of process mapping as a tool to document PrEP clinical and EHR workflows. Your health center team can follow the steps outlined in the toolkit to develop a process map of an existing or planned PrEP...
Identifying opportunities for improvements in health centers
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.
Developed by NASTAD, updated in 2023
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.
Curated PrEP resources for health centers, compliation in 2022.
HITEQ compiled this resource library for health centers, which houses actionable PrEP resources including checklists, pocket guides, and billing guidance. This curated set of resources aims to assist health centers in accessing those resources that directly address current PrEP challenges.
HITEQ Highlights Webinar
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...