Sample Letter for Colleges (Regulated or Allied Healthcare Providers)
Dear Colleagues,
This letter is meant to provide Professional Colleges in BC with information to introduce and assist College Staff in decisionmaking regarding Point of Care (POC) HIV Testing’s inclusion in scope of their professional practice.
HIV testing has traditionally been done through venous blood draws and therefore has been performed primarily by medical staff including physicians, nurses, and medical laboratory technicians. It follows then that these professionals were the first in BC to implement POC HIV testing as part of their practices. However, given the simplicity of the finger poke screening procedure of HIV Point of Care Testing, diverse groups of professionals and community workers are capable of performing and interpreting this
POC HIV screening test. POC HIV testing is widespread and performed by various groups of regulated and non-regulated providers throughout Canada and globally. Point of Care HIV Testing is relatively new as a practice in BC with the introduction of BC’s
Provincial HIV Point of Care HIV Testing Program in 2011. Several professional
Colleges that fall under the BC Professions Act have begun or completed the process of review and inclusion of POC HIV testing into their professional practice.
The Provincial Point of Care HIV Testing Background
Please refer to the BCCDC’s website and POC page for further information and to link to the Point of Care HIV Test Guidelines for Health Care Settings at www.bccdc.ca/POC . Section IV of the Guidelines specifically describes a framework for Allied Healthcare Providers.
Point of Care (POC) HIV tests (also known as “rapid” HIV tests) are HIV antibody screening tests which can be performed on-site while the client waits, and provide results within minutes. In August 2010, the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) was asked by the Ministry of Health to introduce a Provincial POC HIV Testing Program to oversee centralized, province-wide HIV point of care testing, distribution, and quality assurance program funded through the provincial pilot project, Seek and Treat for the
Optimal Prevention of HIV/AIDS (STOP HIV/AIDS). As a result, POC HIV testing has been used in all Health Authorities in British Columbia. The BCCDC has published provincial practice guidelines: Point of Care HIV Test Guidelines for Health Care
Settings. The INSTI HIV-1/HIV-2 Rapid Antibody Test is the only POC HIV test product licensed for use in Canadian health care settings. Please refer to the manufacturer’s website for further product and quality information at http://www.biolyticalcanada.com/
Recommended Testing Sites:
POC HIV Testing is recommended for use in voluntary HIV testing settings accessed by
1. high prevalence populations
2. where not returning for test results is common, or
3. where provision of a POC HIV test result will improve public health follow-up or connection to HIV clinical care.
It is also recommended in clinical scenarios where there is an urgent need to determine
HIV status (i.e. pregnant women near-term or in labour with undocumented HIV status, testing of source individual during blood and fluid exposures, or clinical diagnosis of acutely ill patients).
Page 1 of 2 Revised: 14 May 2014

Sample Letter for Colleges (Regulated or Allied Healthcare Providers)
Roles and Responsibilities:
Shared roles and responsibilities between Health Authorities, First Nations health agencies and BCCDC facilitate the appropriate use of POC HIV testing in communities by designating appropriate healthcare sites for offering POC HIV testing, providing professionals with POC HIV testing training and guidelines and by participating in the monitoring and evaluation of POC HIV testing in the province.
Contact Information
For more informat ion about POC HIV testing’s fit with professional scope of practice and/or to arrange a meeting, please contact:
Provincial Point of Care HIV Testing
Program
655 West 12th Avenue
Vancouver, BC, V5Z 4R4
Phone: 604.707.5635
Fax: 604.707.2603
Email: POCinfo@bccdc.ca
Website: www.bccdc.ca/POC
Page 2 of 2 Revised: 14 May 2014