 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Christine M. Heusner, MA, Steven R. Truax, PhD, and David S. Webb, MS. HIV Prevention Research and Evaluation Section, California Dept. of Health Services, Office of AIDS, 611 North 7th Street, Suite A, Sacramento, CA 95814-0208, (916) 324-6499, cheusner@dhs.ca.gov
Publicly funded HIV test sites in California collect systematic program, client and service provider data. The current version of the data systems (known as HIV5 and HIPS) was developed to support data entry, report generation and quality assurance activities for evaluating HIV counseling and testing (C&T). Several aspects of the HIV C&T program have been monitored in the past four years, the results of which were shared with local health jurisdictions (LHJ) for quality assurance purposes. One example of a regular quality assurance activity is the monitoring of HIV counselor activities. It is a requirement that HIV counselors receive specialized training on a yearly basis. Analyses of the training participants have shown that half of the participants do not work in publicly funded HIV test sites even though it was a requirement for training. Another finding is that 10% of HIV counselors consistently provide 60% of the counseling workload. An examination of HIV test site utilization identified 400 test sites across the State that provided fewer than 40 HIV tests per year or that had few to no HIV-positive tests and where less than one third of clients were at high risk. This information has led to policy changes related to HIV counselor training participation and minimum workload requirements. LHJs are also being asked to focus more on targeted public testing efforts rather than maintaining services at so many underutilized sites. Monitoring service utilization is even more crucial during times of diminishing resources in order to direct funding most appropriately.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Data Collection, Evaluation
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: California Dept. of Health Services, Office of AIDS
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.