‘It is sinking us even further’: STI clinics, already stretched thin, strain under weight of monkeypox response
At the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s sexual health clinic, patients are normally seen within 24 hours. Recently, amid the monkeypox outbreak, it’s been a five-day wait.
At Open Door Health, an LGBTQ+ community clinic in Providence, R.I., a standard test for a sexually transmitted infection might take 15 minutes. Testing for monkeypox — between authorizing the test and donning and doffing PPE — has dragged up to an hour. Insurance reimbursement doesn’t cover all that added time.
