Treatment Outcomes and Costs of Providing Antiretroviral Therapy at a Primary Health Clinic versus a Hospital-Based HIV Clinic in South Africa.

Background: In 2010 South Africa revised its HIV treatment guidelines to allow the initiation and management of patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) by nurses, rather than solely doctors, under a program called NIMART (Nurse Initiated and Managed Antiretroviral Therapy). We compared the outcomes and costs of NIMART between the two major public sector HIV treatment delivery models in use in South Africa today, primary health clinics and hospital-based HIV clinics.

Methods And Findings: The study was conducted at one hospital-based outpatient HIV clinic and one primary health clinic (PHC) in Gauteng Province.