A Collaborative Intervention between Emergency Medicine and Infectious Diseases to Increase Syphilis and HIV Screening in the Emergency Department.

BACKGROUND Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are a common reason for evaluation in the emergency department (ED). Given the overlapping risk factors for STIs, patients screened for gonorrhea and chlamydia should be tested for syphilis and HIV. Syphilis and HIV testing rates in the ED have been reported to be low. The study objective was to examine whether collaboration between Emergency Medicine (EM) and infectious disease (ID) providers improved syphilis and HIV testing in the ED. METHODS A multidisciplinary team of EM and ID providers was formed to identify and address barriers to syphilis and HIV testing in the ED. Syphilis, HIV, chlamydia, and gonorrhea testing and infection rates were calculated and compared during two time periods: pre-intervention (1 Jan 2012 - 30 Dec 2017) and post-intervention (1 Nov 2018 - 30 Nov 2019). We also extracted clinical and laboratory data from patients with positive syphilis and HIV results during the study period. RESULTS The most commonly cited barrier to syphilis and HIV testing was concern about follow-up of positive results. Compared to the pre-intervention period, syphilis and HIV testing rates increased significantly in the post-intervention period (IRR: 30.70, p < 0.0001 and IRR: 28.99, p < 0.0001 for syphilis and HIV, respectively). The post-intervention period was also associated with a significant increase in the identification of patients with positive syphilis and HIV results (IRR 7.02, p < 0.0001 and IRR 2.34, p = 0.03, respectively). CONCLUSIONS Collaboration between EM and ID providers resulted in a significant increase in syphilis and HIV testing and diagnosis in the emergency department.