New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation

HIV Testing Expansion Initiative

In fiscal year 2006, New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (NYCHHC) began a corporate‐wide effort to expand HIV testing. The HIV Testing Expansion Initiative sought to:

• Increase the number of patients who know their HIV status; 
• Identify HIV‐positive individuals at an early point in their disease; 
• Retain patients in care, once they are in care.

NYCHHC facilities facilitated this initiative through the use of rapid tests, integrated testing into routine care, and by broadening the range of staff that could offer and provide tests.

In the first year, HIV testing increased by 57% (from 58,785 tests in FY05 to 92,123 in FY06). 6.1% of total patients were tested in FY05, versus 9.5% of patients in FY06—an increase of 56%. The number of patients found to be positive more than doubled, increasing from 720 in FY05 to 1,514 in FY06. The prevalence of HIV varied from .50% to 4.01% across facilities for a prevalence of 1.64% among total tested patients. (The seroprevalance in NYC was 1.20% over the same period.) 39% of patients who tested positive kept their first appointment for primary HIV care (589 / 1,514). Data for FY07 (through March) indicates continued progress: 97,319 patients have been tested thus far, a 54% increase over this time last year, and 62% (742 / 1,195) of positive patients kept their first HIV appointment.


For more information about this program, please contact:

Joanna Omi
Senior Assistant Vice President,
Corporate Planning
212.788.3604
omij@nychhc.org