Using positive deviance to enhance HIV care retention in South Africa: development of a compassion-focused program to improve the staff and patient experience.

ABSTRACT:

Background

HIV burden remains high in South Africa despite intensive efforts to curtail the epidemic. Public primary care facilities, where most people with HIV (PWH) in South Africa receive treatment, face myriad challenges retaining patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART). Nevertheless, some facilities manage to consistently retain PWH in care. We used a participatory positive deviance (PD) approach to discover characteristics of primary care facilities with above-average 12-month retention rates to develop an intervention.

Methods

We conducted 11 in-depth leadership interviews, 9 staff focus groups with 29 participants, 11 patient focus groups with 45 participants, 23 patient shadowing visits, and multiple facility observations in each of 3 high- and 3 low-retention publ

SUBMITTER: Ober AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11800582 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature