Collaboratives

Through two learning collaboratives, EHE is providing an infrastructure to support health care organizations across King County in better identifying people at risk for HIV and helping them access and utilize Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), testing people for HIV when they are already presenting for health care, and rapidly and effectively treating those diagnosed with HIV.

Improving LGBTQ+ & HIV care among collaborative sites

With small startup funding, organizations who participate in the EHE Healthcare and Emergency Department Collaboratives are implementing quality improvement projects to improve care for LGBTQ+ populations as well as those at risk of or living with HIV.

• HealthPoint: Developing and improving HealthPoint staff capacity to serve LBGTQIA + and BIPOC patients; Implementing mobile point-of-care testing - mobile testing in homeless encampments, shelters, LBGTQIA+ events, supportive housing sites, and other community locations throughout South King County; Improving access to HIV screening and PrEP for Sub-Saharan African immigrants. Clinical Pharmacist provides PrEP education via telehealth.
  
  
• Kaiser Permanente of Washington: Developing capacity with a Community Resource Specialist who is dedicated to the HIV & PrEP Program at KPWA. Goals are to improve care for both HIV & PrEP services for Kaiser Permanente patients, and be a liaison to community-based organizations.
  
  
• University of Washington Emergency Department : Expanding HIV testing at the Emergency Departments (EDs) of three of four hospitals – Harborview Medical Center (HMC), University of Washington – Montlake (UWMC), and University of Washington – Northwest Hospital (UMNW), working towards the goal of opt-out testing within EDs. Building capacity to handle this increase and to improve our capture of people who are presenting to the ED and our reach with populations beyond the walls of the hospital by bringing on a Community Outreach Worker to work to bring people living with HIV (back) to care.
  
  
• Ballard Emergency Department Physicians Swedish: Develop and maintain public facing website in conjunction with the local Emergency Departments and King County Public Health to ensure that reflects common goals and values as well as appropriate and adequate resources for patients. Develop patient facing HIV educational materials. Serve as a resource for others implementing similar programs. Design educational materials and incentives to ED staff who are implementing this program.
  
  
• International Community of Health Services: ICHS improved SOGI data collection to better identify patients, specifically Chinese and Vietnamese patients who identify as LGBTQ+, who may benefit from HIV screening, PrEP access, and linkage to HIV care. This work was completed in 2022 and resulted in increased SOGI data collection rates and awareness of HIV prevention services.
  
  
• SeaMar: SeaMar built new practice advisories and alerts in EPIC, surveyed all providers to develop a roster of providers who are skilled and welcoming to LGBTQ+ patient populations, and developed marketing of HIV prevention and care services at SeaMar and disseminate through their Spanish language radio stations and social media outlets. This work was completed in 2022.

Patient messaging: HIV testing in Emergency Department

Members of the Emergency Department Collaborative developed a patient-facing campaign promoting HIV testing within the ED. Posters received sign-off from the EDs participating in the collaborative, and are being posted in ED waiting rooms in five languages (English, Spanish, Amharic, Somali, and Vietnamese).