Enhancing HIV Partner Services (PS) through Integration of HIV Surveillance Reporting

Issue: Partner Services (PS) covers a range of interventions for newly identified people living with HIV including counseling, linkage to care, and eliciting/testing partners. In order to decrease HIV transmission, rapid turnaround is required between testing and PS delivery. Resources to conduct PS are often scarce and health departments find it necessary to do more with less. This study demonstrates how collaboration between programs can enhance service delivery.

Description: Initiation of PS using HIV Surveillance data expands PS to include individuals reported by non-municipal sources. 2014 PS outcomes were examined according to established PS performance measures: 1) patients contacted within 30d of testing, 2) cases closed within 90d, 3) # partners identified/interview, and 4) # HIV tests as a result of PS.

Lessons Learned: In 2014, PS was offered within 30d to 88% of patients from Surveillance, versus 75% of all patients. For Surveillance-initiated cases, 71% were closed within 90d, versus 75% of all cases. PS resulted in 0.22 partners identified per Surveillance-initiated interview, versus 0.64 overall. Respectively, 25% and 28% of these led to HIV tests. Surveillance-initiated PS and other clinic-initiated PS activities achieve similar outcomes, with the exception of partners identified/interview. Collaboration between HIV Surveillance and Prevention programs expanded PS to new populations.

Recommendations:  Program collaboration resulted in expanded testing of undiagnosed individuals, without additional funding. This serves as a model for successful integration of programmatic activities as a mechanism to improve outcomes in an environment of diminishing resources.