Search

Abstract: Substance use stigma is a barrier to care among people with HIV (PWH), which is exacerbated in the Deep U.S. South. Nurses and nonclinical staff serve a central role in strengthening and expanding care coordination in clinics that serve PWH. We sought to implement and evaluate a pilot training intervention that aimed to reduce substance use stigma among clinical and nonclinical staff who provide care for PWH in the Deep South. In total, 32 clinical and nonclinical staff from five clinics participated in the training, of whom 22% were nurses and 38% were linkage coordinators. We evaluated the association between the intervention and stigma by asking respondents about their agreement with varying levels of stigmatized statements both before and after the training. Overall, we observed a slight reduction in stigma scores. This training has promise as one low-burden approach to substance use stigma reduction in HIV care settings., (Copyright © 2024 Association of Nurses in AIDS Care.)

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated rapid expansion of telehealth as part of healthcare delivery. This study compared HIV-related no-shows by visit type (in-person; video; telephone) during the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2020-September 2021) from the Data for Care Alabama project. Using all primary care provider visits, each visit's outcome was categorized as no-show or arrived. A logistic regression model using generalized estimating equations accounting for repeat measures in individuals and within sites calculated odds ratios (OR) and their accompanying 95% confidence interval (CI) for no-shows by visit modality. The multivariable models adjusted for sociodemographic factors. In-person versus telephone visits [OR (95% CI) 1.64 (1.48-1.82)] and in-person versus video visits [OR (95% CI) 1.53 (1.25-1.85)] had higher odds of being a no-show. In-person versus telephone and video no-shows were significantly higher. This may suggest success of telehealth visits as a method for HIV care delivery even beyond COVID-19., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

We compared retention in care outcomes between a pre-COVID-19 (Apr19-Mar20) and an early-COVID-19 (Apr20-Mar21) period to determine whether the pandemic had a significant impact on these outcomes and assessed the role of patient sociodemographics in both periods in individuals enrolled in the Data for Care Alabama project (n = 6461). Using scheduled HIV primary care provider visits, we calculated a kept-visit measure and a missed-visit measure and compared them among the pre-COVID-19 and early-COVID-19 periods. We used logistic regression models to calculated odds ratios (OR) and accompanying 95% confidence intervals (CI). Overall, individuals had lowers odds of high visit constancy [OR (95% CI): 0.85 (0.79, 0.92)] and higher odds of no-shows [OR (95% CI): 1.27 (1.19, 1.35)] during the early-COVID-19 period. Compared to white patients, Black patients were more likely to miss an appointment and transgender people versus cisgender women had lower visit constancy in the early-COVID-19 period., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: The Alabama Quality Management Group (AQMG), a consortium of 9 Ryan White-funded part C and D clinics, distributed statewide was established in 2006 under the guidance from the Health and Resources Services Administration with a clinical quality improvement (CQI) focus., Methods: We describe the origins and evolution of the AQMG, including requisite shifts from aggregate clinic-wide to de-identified individual-level data reporting for implementation of the Data for Care (D4C-AL) Alabama program. The D4C-AL strategy uses a clinic-wide risk stratification of all patients based on missed clinic visits in the previous 12 months. Intermediate (1-2 missed visits) and high-risk patients (>3 missed visits) receive the evidence-informed Retention through Enhanced Personal Contact intervention. We report on a pilot of the D4CAL program in 4 of 33 primary HIV care clinics at the UAB 1917 Clinic., Results: Among 3859 patients seen between April 2018 and February 2019, the missed visit rate was not significantly different between the D4C-1917 (19.2%) and non-D4C clinics (20.5%) in a preintervention period (May 2017-April 2018). However, a significantly lower missed visit rate was observed in the D4C-1917 vs. non-D4C-1917 clinics during the intervention period (April 2018-February 2019, P = 0.049)., Conclusions: The AQMG has been transformed into a health service research and implementation science platform, building on a shared vision, mission, data reporting, and quality improvement focus. Moreover, CQI may be viewed as an implementation strategy that seeks to enhance uptake and sustained use of effective interventions with D4C-AL representing a prototype for future initiatives embedded within extant quality improvement consortia.