HIV Annual Retention in Care

None

The HIV "continuum of care" is the process of HIV testing, linkage to HIV care, initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART), adherence to treatment, retention in care, and virologic suppression (Gardner et al 2011). Poor retention in care is associated with lower rates of ART use (Giordano et al 2003), delayed viral suppression (Crawford et al 2014), and increased risk of mortality (Giordano et al., 2007; Mugavero et al., 2009). This measure will help providers direct their attention and quality improvement efforts towards improving retention in care.

"Retention in care should be routinely monitored. There are various ways to measure retention, including measures based on attended visits over a defined period of time (constancy measures) and measures based on missed visits. Both approaches are valid and independently predict survival. Missed visits and a prolonged time since the last visit are relatively easy to measure and should trigger efforts to retain or re-engage a person in care. Constancy measures (e.g., at least two visits that are at least 90 days apart over 1 year or at least one visit every 6 months over the last 2 years) can be used as clinic quality assurance measures" (Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents, 2022, p. L-4).

"Poor retention in HIV care is associated with greater risk of death. Poor retention is more common in people who use substances, have serious mental health problems, have unmet socioeconomic needs (e.g., housing, food, transportation), lack financial resources or health insurance, have schedules that complicate adherence, have been recently incarcerated, or face stigma. At the provider and health system level, low trust in providers and a poor patient-provider relationship have been associated with lower retention, as has lower satisfaction with the clinic experience. Availability of appointments and timeliness of appointments (i.e., long delay from the request for an appointment to the appointment's date) and scheduling convenience are also factors" (Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents, 2022, p. L-3).

"Recommendation 2: Systematic monitoring of retention in HIV care is recommended for all patients (II A): Retention in care is associated with improved individual health outcomes, including HIV biomarker and clinical variables, and may reduce community-level viral burden, with implications for secondary prevention. Although monitoring retention is routinely recommended, specific details, such as retention measures to be used and desired visit frequency, vary among jurisdictions and programs and should be in harmony with national and international guidelines. Many retention measures (for example, visit adherence, gaps in care, and visits per interval of time) and data sources (for example, surveillance, medical records, and administrative databases) have been used and may be applied in accordance with local resources and standards of care. As with monitoring of linkage, integration of data sources may enhance monitoring of retention" (Thompson et al., 2012, p. 4).

To maintain consistency from year to year, this measure defines one month as equal to 30 days, three months as equal to 90 days and eight months as equal to 240 days.

Only patients with an eligible encounter in the first eight months are included in this measure to allow for sufficient time to complete a second eligible encounter or viral load laboratory within the 12-month measurement period and at least 90 days after the initial encounter.

All patients, regardless of age, with a diagnosis of HIV during the first 240 days of the measurement period or before the measurement period who had at least one eligible encounter during the first 240 days of the measurement period