Health Care Providers’ Views on Clinic Infrastructure and Practice Models That May Facilitate HIV Preexposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Prescribing: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis

Abstract

HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an effective biomedical HIV prevention tool. Increasing PrEP use among populations disproportionately affected by HIV is one of the key efforts in the United States’ Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) initiative and the HIV National Strategic Plan for the United States. Given that PrEP is available only through prescription, it is important to explore structural, organizational, or environmental factors that could facilitate or impede health care provider’s PrEP prescribing behavior. The purpose of this systematic review (PROSPERO [CRD: 42019138889]) is to identify qualitative studies that addressed this topic and conduct meta-synthesis using the thematic synthesis method to identify major themes on the characteristics of clinic infrastructure or clinic models that providers consider as facilitators of PrEP prescribing in the United States. Eighteen citations representing 15 studies were included in this review. Five overarching themes were identified: (1) routinized HIV risk assessment; (2) interdisciplinary/coordinated PrEP teams or services; (3) clinic capacity to provide essential PrEP-related services; (4) low out-of-pocket patient costs; and (5) access to the priority populations. Some of these themes are consistent with the recommendations of CDC’s PrEP clinical guidelines and the EHE initiative. More recent studies that include perspectives of diverse providers, timely analysis of these studies, and implementation research to assess strategies to address the current practice gaps are needed to further promote PrEP prescribing among providers in the United States.