Notification of HIV Test Results — Is the Return Visit Necessary?

More-widespread HIV testing and subsequent access to care is clearly needed in the U.S. (ACC Nov 5 2007), but the most efficient means of providing broader testing remains unknown. The standard model for HIV testing requires that patients meet with a counselor or other provider to get tested and then again to receive results. Some HIV-infected patients inevitably fail to return for the second encounter and therefore remain unaware of their diagnosis, do not receive treatment, and can unknowingly infect others. Would more clients receive their test results if they could do so by telephone, rather than in person?

To find out, investigators reviewed data collected from 1995 through 2002 at several public HIV testing sites in the Seattle area, a…