The role of the American Hospital Association in combating AIDS

The American Hospital Association (AHA) has taken a leadership role in assisting health care providers in dealing effectively with the challenges of AIDS. Early work focused on preventing infection in the health care setting with the use of the Centers for Disease Control's recommended precautions concerning blood and body fluids. Supporting this effort were a number of live teleconferences, videotapes, and publications that addressed the use of precautions with AIDS patients, community issues associated with the disease, and the development of employee policies. In July 1987, a Special Committee on AIDS/HIV Infection Policy was formed by the AHA Board of Trustees and charged with developing recommendations on the issues that needed to be addressed if hospitals were to continue to meet the challenge of AIDS effectively. The committee's first set of recommendations, approved in November 1987, reaffirmed the use of universal precautions, provided guidance on the appropriate uses and application of HIV testing, and stated that the delivery of care should not be conditioned on the willingness of a patient to undergo testing. The second set of recommendations, which were approved in January 1988, focused on the need to distribute the responsibility for AIDS care among a wide variety of health care providers, to seek creative financing approaches that involve both the private and public sectors, and called on hospitals to provide leadership in ensuring that a continuum of services is available to AIDS patients. Continuing efforts to assist hospitals in the care delivery issues associated with AIDS are described.