i
Evaluation of the Impact and Outcomes of a Rapid Transition to Telehealth PrEP Delivery at a Sexual Health Clinic During the COVID-19 Pandemic
-
12 01 2023
-
-
Source: Sex Transm Dis. 50(12):816-820
Details:
-
Alternative Title:Sex Transm Dis
-
Personal Author:
-
Description:Background:
Increasing HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use is a critical part of ending the HIV epidemic. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many PrEP services transitioned to a telehealth model (telePrEP). This report evaluates the effect of COVID-19 and the addition of telePrEP on delivery of PrEP services at the Denver Sexual Health Clinic (DSHC), a regional sexual health clinic in Denver, CO.
Methods:
Prior to COVID-19, DSHC PrEP services were offered exclusively in-clinic. In response to the pandemic, after March 15, 2020, most PrEP initiation and follow up visits were converted to telePrEP. A retrospective analysis of DSHC PrEP visits compared pre-COVID-19 (September 1, 2019 to March 15, 2020) to post-COVID-19 (March 16, 2020 to September 30, 2020) visit volume, demographics, and outcomes.
Results:
The DSHC completed 689 PrEP visits pre-COVID-19 and maintained 96.8% (n=667) of this volume post-COVID-19. There were no differences in client demographics between pre-COVID-19 (n=341) and post-COVID-19 PrEP start visits (n=283) or between post-COVID-19 in-clinic (n=140) vs telePrEP start visits (n=143). There were no differences in 3–4-month retention rates pre-COVID-19 (n=17/43) and post-COVID-19 (n=21/43) (P=0.52) or between in-clinic (n=12/21) and telePrEP clients (n=9/22) in the post-COVID-19 window (P=0.37). Also, there were no significant differences in lab completion rates between in-clinic (n=140/140) and telePrEP clients (n=138/143) (P=0.06) and prescription fill rates between in-clinic (n=115/136) and telePrEP clients (n=116/135) in the post-COVID-19 window (P=0.86).
Conclusions:
Implementation of TelePrEP enabled the DSHC to sustain PrEP services during the COVID-19 pandemic without significant differences in demographics, engagement, or retention in PrEP services.
-
Subjects:
-
Keywords:
-
Source:
-
Pubmed ID:37820240
-
Pubmed Central ID:PMC10668045
-
Document Type:
-
Funding:
-
Volume:50
-
Issue:12
-
Collection(s):
-
Main Document Checksum:
-
Download URL:
-
File Type: