Ryan White 2012 Grantee Meeting

How do we find the missing link in the test-and-treat continuum? In order to realize the impact of expanding testing and treatment in our communities, we need to find out who and why we have difficulty keeping in care. This workshop will show you how we used existing local lab and clinic data to evaluate and improve our linkage, retention and viral load suppression rates. We determined the demographic characteristics of those out of care and those not virally suppressed, then focused our quality improvement activities on interdisciplinary strategies to reach those populations. You will have the opportunity to explore how you would conduct similar analyses, prioritize strategies to address gaps in the care continuum, and develop a work plan that you can implement.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the impact of using clinical data, especially linkage rates, retention rates and viral loads, to evaluate and improve patient and population-level test-and-treat outcomes.
• Explore and prioritize strategies to improve linkage to and retention in care on a local or regional population-level.
• Develop a work plan to implement at least one strategy for improving linkage and retention rates in the community served by your work.