Program Offers Computerized Informed Consent for HIV Testing at New York City Hospital, Others

CBSNews.com examines how some states, including New York, have not implemented CDC's routine, voluntary HIV testing guidelines in health care settings and still practice "what's known as 'informed consent,' which means health care professionals must explain the test and get the patient's signature." Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, along with a few other hospitals, has "found a way to work within the current rules, and even use modern technology to vastly increase the number of patients tested," by allowing them to give computerized consent to HIV testing, the article states. Since implementing the program three years ago, the hospital has tested more than 26,000 patients and diagnosed 150 with HIV, according to CBSNews.com. Meanwhile, a "bill to eliminate informed consent was recently introduced in the New York State legislature" CBSNews.com reports (David, 8/16).

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