Missed opportunities for hiv testing of patients tested for sexually transmitted infections at a large urban health care system from 2010 to 2015

Abstract

Background. Appropriate testing of people at risk for HIV is an important piece of the HIV care continuum. We analyzed HIV testing patterns of patients tested for gonorrhea and chlamydia (GC/CT) at a large urban health care system in New York City. Methods. We retrospectively studied HIV and GC/CT testing from 2010 to 2015. Data were collected from a clinical laboratory database and linked to electronic health records. Patients were older than age 13 years, not known to be HIV positive, and had had a GC/CT test. The main outcome was the proportion of patients who had both HIV and GC/CT testing performed at the same encounter. Results. We analyzed 85 768 patients with 139 404 GC/CT testing encounters. Most of the testing encounters (88% for men and 94% for women) were in the outpatient setting. Same-day HIV testing improved from 59% in 2010 to 70% in 2015 for male patients, and from 41% to 51% for female patients. In multivariate regression, male sex was associated with receipt of an HIV test (odds ratio [OR], 2.49; P