Project Overview
Facilities, employees, and patients in health care systems related to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care face difficulties when extreme weather events, such as hurricanes in New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA), become more severe and frequent. By redesigning systems, quality improvement collaboratives (QICs) may be able to mitigate these issues and increase HIV care retention during significant interruptions. This project provided an example of a QIC that was underway to enhance engagement in HIV care at the time of Hurricane Ida in August 2021.
Data and Data Collection Overview
A semi-structured interview guide was used to conduct nine interviews in NOLA following Hurricane Ida. This study used purposive sampling to recruit and interview key informants (KI), including health department leadership and staff, other QIC Planning Body members, and staff and leaders from participating clinics/agencies. Interviews were conducted between September 2021 and February 2022, approximately 1 to 5 months after Hurricane Ida struck, and 1.5 years since programs had been initiated to integrate community health workers (CHWs) into HIV care engagement efforts.
Interview participants were recruited via email by a member of the qualitative evaluation team (EA), a female, trained anthropologist and professor with over 20 years of working in the HIV-related field. All of the participants who were approached agreed to be interviewed. All participants provided verbal informed consent to participate, which was recorded at the outset of the interview, and were offered a $75 gift card to participate. Interviews took place via Zoom and lasted approximately 60-75 minutes. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. A thematic analysis of the interview transcripts was conducted. A codebook was developed of a priori codes based on implementation outcomes and the interview guide, which focused on understanding participant experiences in the capacity-building initiative.
The in-depth interviews about evaluating a quality improvement initiative funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) focused on learning collaboratives and integrating CHWs into agencies and clinics to improve retention in HIV care. Data collection took place shortly following Hurricane Ida, and therefore description of that event as a barrier to implementation and retention is also included.
Selection and Organization of Shared Data
The data files shared here include all nine deidentified interview transcripts from NOLA.
The documentation files shared consist of the original information sheet / consent script used, the interview guide, a Data Narrative and an administrative README file. |
