IOM rings alarm over HIV patients' access to caregivers

The number of people with HIV is outpacing medical providers who can care for them, the Institute of Medicine warned Thursday in a new report.

The report is the third and final in a series on challenges facing officials as they implement President Obama's National HIV/AIDS Strategy, unveiled last summer. It found many healthcare facilities are hamstrung by a lack of training and experience in caring for patients with HIV and AIDS, making it difficult for them to collaborate on patient care and shift tasks across providers to the extent permitted by state regulations.

Previous reports raised concerns with conflicting federal recommendations on HIV testing, legal requirements placed by states on how testing is conducted, policies inhibiting use of rapid HIV tests, and practices in prisons and other correctional facilities. 

"There will be numerous challenges as the nation begins implementing the new National HIV/AIDS Strategy," said Paul Cleary, who chairs of the committee that wrote the series. "These reports identify many of those challenges, but more importantly, present many practical suggestions from the research literature and experts about how to address and overcome the obstacles to a more effective and efficient HIV/AIDS strategy."