Mazzoni Center is in the midst of losing four healthcare providers.
Since January, two have departed from the LGBTQ health center at 1348 Bainbridge St., said Mazzoni’s Director of Communications Larry Benjamin. One left for a career opportunity, while the other moved home to Pittsburgh.
Two additional physicians are expected to move on from the center before the end of the year. One will step down in August to move to New York with his partner, who accepted a job there. The second will leave in September to join their partner, who lives abroad.
The departures pose some challenges for the organization, which currently has 10 providers.
“With a staff as small as ours, multiple providers leaving in a single year presents a challenge,” Benjamin told PGN in an email. “We are working on continued access and meeting patient needs every day.”
The center is recruiting new staff and has hired one new provider, who will start in September. The organization is dedicated to finding new team members who mesh well with patients, Benjamin said: “We hire with care so that new clinicians are LGBTQ competent and a good fit with our patients and the community we serve.”
Even with the loss of several staff members, Mazzoni is dedicated to maintaining the services it offers, especially HIV care and prevention, Benjamin added.
As of March, Mazzoni’s overall HIV viral suppression rate for patients clocked in at 90 percent. For trans patients, the rate was at 85 percent. Both outweigh the city-wide 2017 suppression rate of 51 percent.
To date this fiscal year, Mazzoni physicians have performed 7,330 HIV tests, 2,962 syphilis screenings and 6,184 gonorrhea and chlamydia screenings. This makes the organization the second largest provider of these tests in Philadelphia, Benjamin said, trailing only the Department of Health.
Mazzoni provides care for 1,253 patients living with HIV. About 1,700 health center clients take PrEP. The center will continue actively hiring new physicians to join its team.