Rapid HIV Testing in a New Orleans Emergency Department is Effective in Identifying New HIV Diagnoses and in Linking Patients to Care.

A retrospective chart review of patients who agreed to a rapid HIV test in the emergency department in the initial year of institution of the rapid test was conducted. Out of 8,204 patients, 99 were newly diagnosed with HIV in the first year of the institution of the rapid HIV test (1.2%). Eighty-five (86%) had a documented referral to the infectious disease clinic, and 59 (60%) were linked to care within one year of diagnosis. The majority (58%) of the patients with a new diagnosis of HIV had been seen in the Interim Louisiana State University Public Hospital (ILPH) healthcare system in the five years prior to their diagnosis. Forty-nine percent of the patients met diagnostic criteria of AIDS at diagnosis. Rapid HIV testing in the emergency department is an effective way to find previously undiagnosed patients and link them to subspecialty care.