Outcomes From an Urgent Care Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Protocol for the Prevention of HIV.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and urgent care medical providers can be powerful allies when combined in the fight against HIV infection. Unfortunately, PrEP use in the urgent care setting is underused due to a lack of resources, provider staff knowledge, and comfort on the part of providers. An urgent care-specific PrEP protocol was developed, and 29 providers from six different urgent care facilities in Louisiana participated in a 20-week quality improvement project. The developed urgent care-specific PrEP protocol resulted in an increase in knowledge and comfort and a reduction in barriers associated with PrEP use. Overall, the urgent care PrEP protocol showed the ability to assist the urgent care clinician in many areas previously noted in research as reasons for reduced PrEP use. The urgent care PrEP protocol serves as an additional tool for the urgent care providers in HIV biomedical preventative care. The results of this project are reported using the Standards of Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence.