Challenges in Obtaining HIV Testing in an Acute Involuntary Inpatient Psychiatric Setting

Even in health care professions, a stigma remains for patients with co-occurring HIV and serious mental illness. Researchers at a large, urban medical center encountered this stigma when they attempted to initiate a study of cognition in psychiatric inpatients with and without HIV who were seen as vulnerable in the context of research. Education efforts and advocacy on the part of the research team was instrumental and resulted in system-wide changes in the hospital, including the addition of HIV testing to the psychiatric admission laboratory panel. Within the first year that routine laboratory orders included an HIV test, the rate of testing ordered by inpatient-attending psychiatrists reached 60% of admissions. As of 2014, 13 HIV tests were found to be HIV seropositive in inpatients, with four of those cases classified as new-onset, as opposed to two positive tests in the year prior to our study.