Unlocking HIV Prevention in Primary Care: Implementation of the Denver HIV Risk Score Tool in an Urban Michigan Primary Care Setting

Abstract

The Unlocking HIV Prevention Project was designed and implemented to address missed opportunities to address HIV risks. The project's site noted a gap in the use of an HIV risk assessment tool during primary care visits. The purpose of this quality-improvement project was to determine whether the translation of the Denver HIV Risk Score tool into primary care visits would affect the number of individuals identified as at risk for HIV and increase preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) prescription rates among adults seeking care at an urban Michigan primary care clinic. Data on PrEP prescriptions were collected from the electronic health record before and after implementation of the HIV risk assessment tool. Before implementing this screening tool, no patients were identified as at risk and no prescriptions for PrEP were written. After implementation, 16 patients were identified as at risk with seven prescriptions written. These data suggest that this tool has the potential to improve the identification of patients at risk for HIV who are candidates for PrEP prescribing in primary care.