Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on an emergency department-based opt-out HIV screening program in a South Florida hospital: An interrupted time series analysis, July 2018-March 2021.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a tremendous burden on healthcare services. We evaluated its impact on an emergency department (ED)-based opt-out Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing in a public healthcare system.

Methods

The programmatic data of ED-based HIV testing from July 2018 to March 2021 at the Memorial Regional Hospital, Hollywood, Florida was analyzed by interrupted time series analysis to evaluate the immediate and gradual effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of monthly HIV tests, with an interruption point at March 2020.

Results

The average number of monthly HIV tests were significantly lower during the pandemic than the pre-pandemic (791 ± 187 vs 1745 ± 266, P < .001). There was a slight decline trend in the number of monthly HI

SUBMITTER: Niu J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9106395 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature