PMID- 24039804
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20140615
LR  - 20211021
IS  - 1932-6203 (Electronic)
IS  - 1932-6203 (Linking)
VI  - 8
IP  - 9
DP  - 2013
TI  - Awareness of HIV testing guidelines is low among Swiss emergency doctors: a 
      survey of five teaching hospitals in French-speaking Switzerland.
PG  - e72812
LID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0072812 [doi]
LID - e72812
AB  - BACKGROUND: In Switzerland, 30% of HIV-infected individuals are diagnosed late. 
      To optimize HIV testing, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) updated 
      'Provider Induced Counseling and Testing' (PICT) recommendations in 2010. These 
      permit doctors to test patients if HIV infection is suspected, without explicit 
      consent or pre-test counseling; patients should nonetheless be informed that 
      testing will be performed. We examined awareness of these updated recommendations 
      among emergency department (ED) doctors. METHODS: We conducted a 
      questionnaire-based survey among 167 ED doctors at five teaching hospitals in 
      French-Speaking Switzerland between 1(st) May and 31(st) July 2011. For 25 
      clinical scenarios, participants had to state whether HIV testing was indicated 
      or whether patient consent or pre-test counseling was required. We asked how many 
      HIV tests participants had requested in the previous month, and whether they were 
      aware of the FOPH testing recommendations. RESULTS: 144/167 doctors (88%) 
      returned the questionnaire. Median postgraduate experience was 6.5 years 
      (interquartile range [IQR] 3; 12). Mean percentage of correct answers was 59 +/- 
      11%, senior doctors scoring higher (P=0.001). Lowest-scoring questions pertained 
      to acute HIV infection and scenarios where patient consent was not required. 
      Median number of test requests was 1 (IQR 0-2, range 0-10). Only 26/144 (18%) of 
      participants were aware of the updated FOPH recommendations. Those aware had 
      higher scores (P=0.001) but did not perform more HIV tests. CONCLUSIONS: Swiss ED 
      doctors are not aware of the national HIV testing recommendations and rarely 
      perform HIV tests. Improved recommendation dissemination and adherence is 
      required if ED doctors are to contribute to earlier HIV diagnoses.
FAU - Darling, Katharine E A
AU  - Darling KE
AD  - Infectious Diseases Service, Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland.
FAU - de Allegri, Nathalie
AU  - de Allegri N
FAU - Fishman, Daniel
AU  - Fishman D
FAU - Kehtari, Reza
AU  - Kehtari R
FAU - Rutschmann, Olivier T
AU  - Rutschmann OT
FAU - Cavassini, Matthias
AU  - Cavassini M
FAU - Hugli, Olivier
AU  - Hugli O
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Multicenter Study
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20130906
PL  - United States
TA  - PLoS One
JT  - PloS one
JID - 101285081
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - *Awareness
MH  - Clinical Competence
MH  - *Diagnostic Tests, Routine
MH  - *Emergency Service, Hospital
MH  - Female
MH  - HIV Infections/*diagnosis
MH  - Health Care Surveys
MH  - *Hospitalists
MH  - Hospitals, Teaching
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - *Practice Guidelines as Topic
MH  - Risk Factors
MH  - Surveys and Questionnaires
MH  - Switzerland
PMC - PMC3765151
COIS- Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
EDAT- 2013/09/17 06:00
MHDA- 2014/06/16 06:00
PMCR- 2013/09/06
CRDT- 2013/09/17 06:00
PHST- 2013/01/22 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2013/07/17 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2013/09/17 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2013/09/17 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2014/06/16 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2013/09/06 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - PONE-D-13-03401 [pii]
AID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0072812 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - PLoS One. 2013 Sep 6;8(9):e72812. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0072812. eCollection 
      2013.