Pilot program studies HIV testing at community pharmacies, retail clinics

Over the last few decades, providing HIV testing at community pharmacies and retail clinics has proved to be an effective way to make sure such testing is available to the general public, as community testing increases convenience and affordability.

To better determine the cost of such programs, a pilot project providing testing in several pharmacy settings (for-profit, non-profit, sole proprietorship, corporation, public and private) in urban and rural areas was offered. Data was collected from six initial participating sites.

Factors studied included time spent by pharmacy and retail clinic staff for pretest and post-test counseling; time-in-motion for each interaction; actual testing; main outcome measures; and cost of test kits, control kits, shipping, test supplies, training, reporting, program administration and advertising.

Twenty-two staff members were trained across the six sites to administer testing; 939 HIV rapid tests were conducted over a median time of 12 months, of which 17 were reactive. Median pretest counseling time was two minutes for clients with a nonreactive test and 10 minutes for clients with a reactive test.

The average cost per person tested was approximately $47.21.

The overall findings of the study were that HIV testing in pharmacies and retail clinics provided a useful alternative venue and increased the availability and accessibility of HIV testing services in the United States.