Emergency Departments (EDs) are a key location for people to access STI services. EDs offer accessibility and flexibility that may be difficult to find in a provider’s office or an STI clinic, including access to treatment during the weekends. EDs also perform many asymptomatic screenings, or screenings for less common symptoms of an STI. Unaware of the volume of STI testing, one program began monitoring all STI testing from the ED, notifying patients of their test results, prescribing medication for patients needing treatment through a collaborative agreement with our pharmacy, or referring patients needing an injectable medication to a clinic that could perform the service.

This presentation will discuss the opportunities for implementing linkage to comprehensive services by assessing populations who are seen in the ED testing for STIs, including syphilis and HIV. We will explore the operations of identifying eligible patients, including our collaborations with the public health department, our Infectious Disease Clinic, and our Title V Clinic. We will highlight what is going well and discuss areas of improvement.
This presentation will also review the successes and challenges of launching a rapid PrEP program in an ED setting. The discussion will cover the operations of developing and implementing the program. We will also talk about how we leveraged other positions to assist with the process, which has been critical as funding becomes increasingly strained.