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At AIDS Healthcare Foundation, we commit to linking any person newly diagnosed with HIV to care within 72 hours of their reactive result. In addition, through our AHF Wellness Centers that offer free STI (Sexually Transmitted Infection) screening and testing, our Healthcare Centers, our Mobile Testing Units, and community events, we provide the public with several opportunities for STI testing.
If there is a reaction after a person tests, a testing counselor will contact that person and set them up with a health care appointment at one of our many locations. At the appointment, we walk the individual through what care will look like moving forward, and we prescribe any appropriate medications needed to ensure they receive specialized care. At the same time, we schedule a follow-up appointment because statistics show that patients who make their second appointment are significantly more likely to stay in care long-term.
We are also excited to report the opening of two new state-of-the-art, all-in-one flagship locations in San Diego, CA, and Hollywood, CA. These sites exhibit our advanced, patient-centered model of operation. The innovative design puts customer service and care at the heart of structure to create a zero-wait time experience. There are no waiting rooms at our San Diego and Hollywood Healthcare Centers. Our medical and administrative staff operate in full transparency in the center of our clinic, and they go to the patients wherever they are in the room. From there, our staff escorts patients directly to an exam room.
Because AHF operates Wellness Centers and Mobile Testing Units, positive test results are inevitable. Therefore, we established ways for individuals to receive prescriptions from an AHF Pharmacy even if they are not a client of our Healthcare Center. Similarly, we also prescribe PrEP (Pre-exposure Prophylaxis) to clients of our Wellness Centers, who then can fill their PrEP prescriptions at an AHF Pharmacy. This provides an opportunity for our pharmacy representatives to link pharmacy clients into care at our Healthcare Centers, assuring continuity of care for patients and increasing the likelihood of follow-up appointments, regular STI testing, and proper treatment going forward.
As a healthcare organization, AHF has over 1.7 million patients in care across 45 countries and 16 U.S. states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Currently, more than 50,000 of our patients utilize any number of our 62 pharmacies spread across the U.S. In rare instances, if a patient has a prescription filled at a designated location and is unable to retrieve their medication for any reason, that prescription will be transferred over to another pharmacy in our network in just one quick phone call. Additionally, we provide free-of-cost delivery in discreet packaging for our clients.
340B program savings enable safety net providers, hospitals, and non-profit clinics like AHF to fund services and care for uninsured and underinsured patients. We urge elected officials to support the 340B program because it costs taxpayers and the government nothing and allows lifesaving medications to reach persons who would otherwise be without treatment for illnesses and chronic disease. At AHF, the 340B program is vital to our ability to provide quality health care for people living with HIV regardless of their ability to pay, and in 2020 alone, we administered over 126,000 free HIV tests domestically.
Asha Doucet is Content Marketing Specialist at AHF. For questions, please email feedback@ahf.org.
