PCH's Current Projects and News

5/2001
New York Organ Donor Network (NYODN) has contracted PCH to model factors related to the five criteria of organ donor success used nationally to compare organ procurement organizations (OPO) and provide a “weight” for each of the factors that can be used to standardize the scores among OPOs in different service areas. The weights will be applied to demographic, health status, and environmental factors . In the first phase of the inquiry PCH will explore the use of the traditional cadeveric organ donations criterion of donations per 1,000,000 population as a valid indicator of the success of Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs).

4/2001
Clark County Health District (CCHD), in coordination with the Las Vegas EMA, has contracted PCH to conduct a Needs Assessment including the documentation and formalization of a continuum of care, an epidemiological review, a survey on PLWH/A and providers, and focus groups. Information from the needs assessment will be used to identify service needs, gaps in service barriers, and available resources for all PLWH/A in the Las Vegas EMA. The information will be used by the Council, Grantee, and Communities infected and affected by AIDS as input into the: 1) effective completion of all Ryan White applications, 2) prioritizing services, 3) establishing funding levels, and 4) planning of services to best identify unmet needs, meet those needs, and overcome barriers to services of PLWH/A. PCH will co-facilitate a priority and allocation workshop using the data form the needs assessment.

3/2001
Clark County Health District (CCHD), in collaboration with the Las Vegas EMA, has contracted PCH to create an instrument to interview individuals not receiving medical care and analyze the results. Using the HIV/AIDS Reporting System (HARS) database, CCHD identified individuals that had no reported medical tests or visits in the past year.. Surveillance staff will attempt to contact those individuals to conduct the survey and urge them to start or continue care. The investigation will update the HARS database for all living and deceased cases and collect detailed information to help understand the reasons for not accessing care. Up to 200 individuals will be contacted during the course of data collection.

2/2001
The Houston Area HIV Services Ryan White Planning Council has contracted PCH to update the Epidemiological Review conduced by PCH in 1998, and prepare a special Power-Point presentation focusing on communities of color, and emphasizing the seriousness of the epidemic in communities of color: Disproportionate Impact of HIV/AIDS on Communities of Color. The PowerPoint Presentation can be seen on PCH's website under publications.

10/2000
Dallas County Health and Human Services (DCHHS) has contracted PCH to update the epidemiological review, comprehensive HIV/AIDS Care Needs Assessment, and Comprehensive Plan in the Dallas Eligible Metropolitan Area (EMA) that PCH conducted in 1998.. The goal of the needs assessment is to provide the Ryan White Planning Council of the Dallas Area, the Consortium and DCHHS with data on HIV/AIDS that is necessary for effective services planning. PCH has interviewed 400 PLWH/A, conducted ten focus groups with African Americans, Hispanics, heterosexual men and women, injecting drug users (IDU), and people out-of-care, and conducted key informant interviews.

9/2000
Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) has contracted PCH to conduct a statewide HIV/AIDS prevention needs assessment report. The goal of the report is to provide the necessary information for ISDH and the HIV Prevention Community Planning Group (CPG) to develop a comprehensive HIV Prevention Plan, set priorities, and allocate available resources for the met and unmet HIV prevention needs within defined populations in Indiana. To achieve this goal, PCH will review existing reports, plans and secondary data, conducted a survey among 450 community residents at high risk of HIV infection, and conduct fourteen focus groups with community residents from high risk populations throughout the State of Indiana.

8/2000
The Houston Area HIV Services Ryan White Planning Council has contracted with PCH to assist in the development of a survey instrument to measure HIV/AIDS care needs among communities of color, design a sampling strategy, and assist in analysis of the survey.

8/2000
New York Organ Donor Network (NYODN) has contracted PCH to assist in creating a model to increase organ/tissue donations by expanding a pilot program that improved the procurement process with the development of a specialized, highly trained team of designated donation requestors. The Consortium has the advantage of having collected baseline data which is available through the Donor and Recipient Tracking System (DARTS). As part of this large established database the NYODN has data resources that will be analyzed for this project. The data includes consent data for organs which can be analyzed by demographics data. Using this data as a baseline, the data from this project will demonstrate the efficacy of the program in increasing organ procurement and consent.

5/5/2000
Latino Commission on AIDS (LCoA), based in New York City, has contracted PCH to evaluate the community-level effect of the "Impacto Latino Coalition." The goal of the Coalition is to promote and facilitate referral linkages between churches, AIDS service organizations and community-based organization to build stronger ties amongst groups that provide health related information. PCH is designing evaluation forms, training LCoA staff on quality data collection methods, and will analyze the data collected from the pre/post intervention surveys to measure outcomes of the program.

5/3/2000
TECHNOLOGY UPGRADE: PCH is upgrading its internal computer system. Thanks to a donation of Microsoft of software (through Showcase New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut), we will be upgrading our workstations to NT for workstations and Windows 2000, and upgrading NT and Exchange on our servers. PCH will also be installing a DSL line to allow 24/7 Internet access. Thanks to a donation by Adobe of Acrobat (through Gifts-in-Kind) PCH will be placing more of its reports and documents on-line in order to provide HIV/AIDS care needs assessment analysis.

4/18/2000
Lucas Sebastian Orellana-Espada: Lucia, our Senior Analyst, just gave birth to a beautiful healthy 7 1/4 lb baby boy. She will be out on maternity leave until June 1st.

4/15/2000
The Indiana Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Services Planning and Advisory Council for the Indiana Sate Department of Health, Division of HIV/STD has contracted PCH to provide a comprehensive statewide HIV/AIDS needs assessment related to their Title II programs. In addition PCH will be collaborating to combine the Title II and Title III needs assessment. The project includes a epidemiological profile, the measurement of unmet needs, development of continuum of care, resource guide, and recommendations for an a system that collects data for ongoing assessment. The surveys, focus groups, and key informant data collected among PLWH/A and providers, as well as review existing data, will be analyzed to determine needs, unmet needs, and barriers to care for PLWH/A in Indiana. PCH will assist the Council in prioritizing services and funding levels and developing a comprehensive care plan.

2/11/2000
Aurora and The Actor's Fund have contracted PCH to evaluate convalescent care in a cluster setting. PCH will produce a report based on the analysis of survey and medical record data to assess whether the Aurora’s Convalescence Model promotes the viability of discharge to non-institutionalized settings based on outcomes. This will be a three year project.

2/08/2000
The Foundation for Research on Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Inc. (FROST’D), located in New York City has contracted PCH to continue its previous organizational assessment by developing an organizational structure with job descriptions. PCH will recommend an organizational structure and provide job descriptions for key managerial staff

1/22/2000
The Multnomah County Health Department located in Portland, Oregon has contracted PCH to conduct a study for a standardized system for client intake, monitoring, and assessment, including standardized eligibility for all Ryan White Care Act funded services.

The objective of this project will be to research existing models for a standardized intake and assessment system which includes documentation of client eligibility. This project will include: documenting eligibility criteria for Ryan White funded services in the Portland EMA; Reviewing eligibility criteria as outlined in the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) documents/records; and Reviewing automated standard intake and eligibility data systems used in other EMAs and health care organizations.

10/8/99
Multnomah County Health Department has also contracted a statewide provider survey distributed to 100 plus medical and social service providers. From these providers, we are seeking information to identify, assess, and describe the Continuum of Care in order to capture an understanding of prevention and treatment services to PLWH/A.

9/22/1999
The Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has awarded PCH a contract to conduct Population And Data Based Assessment Of Unmet Need For HIV Health and Support Services. The objective of this project is to assist Title I and Title II Ryan White CARE Act (RWCA) programs to develop more explicit and sophisticated methods for conducting population and data-based assessments of unmet needs of HIV health and support services. The project will:

1. Enhance current a qualitative and quantitative assessment of unmet needs for the Houston and Portland EMAs, Houston HSDA, and State of Oregon;
2. Develop a complete description of a generalizable methodology for conducting assessments of unmet need, suitable for use in providing guidance to all RWCA programs.