Ryan White HIV Clinic
Division of Infectious Diseases & International Health
CLINICAL ACTIVITIES: Ryan White HIV Clinic
Greg Townsend, MD, director of UVA’s Ryan White Clinic, and other staff members talk about patient-centered care at the clinic.
UVA’s federally funded Ryan White HIV/AIDS Clinic, established in 1991, provides medical care to individuals with HIV from across Virginia and 18 other states, including visits for medical, dental and mental health care. The clinic conducts research in areas such as antiretroviral protocols, therapies for opportunistic infections, and methods of improving adherence to therapy, and it is at the forefront of compiling quality metrics for HIV care.
Acting under the mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Ryan White program identified in the last year those in its patient population who were uninsured, and helped them enroll in an appropriate insurance plan. As a result, 93 percent of clinic patients are now either enrolled in an insurance program or have another identified means of support. The clinic will continue to focus on full compliance with the ACA, and is seeking to expand its patient base and improve patient retention through programs such as “peer coach” training, a newly established walk-in clinic, and collaborative efforts with UVA Women’s Health that are supported by a Human Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant.
A grant from the Ryan White Part D supplemental fund, received in September 2014, allowed the clinic to develop and trial a peer coach program in the ensuing eight months; the goal is to identify and train a cadre of HIV-positive volunteers who provide peer-to-peer support — with appropriate supervision — for other HIV-positive people. The clinic is particularly focused on developing peer coaches for women and young people under the age of 24. Clinic staff worked with Ribbon Consulting Group in Washington, D.C., and with medical center administration to develop the program’s infrastructure, including protocols, training materials, and volunteer position descriptions, that will enable it to be formally integrated into the UVA Health System’s clinical services.
Six individuals have been approved and trained as UVA Health System HIV peer coaches; to date, two Ryan White clinic patients have completed a course with a peer coach, and two others have been enrolled. All coaches will come together in July 2015, at the end of the pilot phase of the program, for a forum that will include focus groups and surveys to gather feedback.
Three peer coach volunteers and two community health workers with the UVA Infectious Diseases Clinic attended a four-day seminar, the “Stanford Chronic Disease Self-Management Program Master Training,” in North Carolina, in May 2015. With these trained personnel, the ID Clinic plans to offer three to four workshops in chronic disease self-management to its patient population over the next year, with the first to be held in September 2015.