Story and photos by Lauren Means
If you’ve been to Nashville Pride, you might have seen the Music City PrEP “Drag Nurses” wandering around in uniform. They’re meant to bring attention to the Rod Bragg Music City PrEP Clinic (MCPC) and
the services they offer. They help engage people in conversation that will hopefully lead to people being tested and starting pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) if necessary.
PrEP is just one of the services you can find at MCPC. Founded in 2017, the sexual health and wellness clinic is working to get to zero new HIV transmissions in Nashville and Middle Tennessee by providing PrEP or HIV Care to each patient at no cost or at the lowest cost possible regardless of income or insurance status. Their services include lab testing for HIV, bacterial STIs, and hepatitis A, B and C. MCPC hopes to help the community have sex without fear and love without stigma.
When the founding clinic in West Nashville first opened, it offered services one Tuesday night per month but during the five years they’ve been serving the community, it has expanded to have clinics open all week. They also offer access to services statewide via virtual health appointments.
Expansion to Increase Access
In September 2022, MCPC opened its second Tennessee location in East Nashville. The Fatherland location was created in hopes of being a multi-use area for the community. Steven Ogooue, Director of Community Relations at MCPC, said the former Bill Martin’s grocery store was chosen for their second location because it was in an area that’s an up-and-coming LGBTQ+ neighborhood and will allow MCPC to fulfill their intention of creating community-focused spaces.
In this location, MCPC is able to hold its clinics and share the 12-room clinic space with a primary care office called Chosen Family Medicine. They also have Avita Pharmacy in-house to fill prescriptions for clients of MCPC. This pharmacy boasts having AAHIVP-certified pharmacy teams which is something chain pharmacies cannot say. An HIV PharmacistTM (AAHIVP) is a licensed pharmacist who has undergone specialized professional development centered on HIV care and passed a detailed examination process.
The East Nashville clinic is also home to an LGBTQ+ community center/event space called The Rod Bragg
Rainbow Room. MCPC and the event center are named for one of its founders, the late Rod Bragg, who passed away prior to the first Tennessee clinic completion. The hope is this space will be used for events benefiting the LGBTQ+ community.
In an effort to expand MCPC’s reach in underserved communities, Louisville, Kentucky is slated to be the next location to begin holding in-person clinics. By opening a clinic in Louisville, they will be able to offer telehealth appointments across the state of Kentucky.
Additionally, MCPC has a mobile clinic they utilize for community outreach initiatives to screen for STIs including HIV, starting PrEP, and even facilitating post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) if someone is experiencing an emergent situation. Each patient is connected with a provider in person or via telehealth when they use services provided by the mobile clinic.
Still Fighting Stigma, Other Barriers
“It goes without saying that we have not reached our goal of eradicating HIV in the community,” Ogooue explained. It’s for this reason, there’s a need for MCPC to reach other parts of the Middle Tennessee community. When MCPC first launched, while they served everyone, they focused their outreach on the LGBTQ+ community. Ogooue noted there was always this need to, as MacKinnon would tell them, reach higher in the cherry tree.
About a year ago, MCPC started a strong effort to reach the African American community. They recognized early on that getting buy-in from the African American community on HIV testing and prevention might prove a little more difficult than other aspects of healthcare and preventative medicine. Ogooue said it can be hard to have that conversation with members of the African American community — the heterosexual and cis-gender members in particular — because there’s still a lot of stigma.
He also said a lot of that’s related to religion. “Secularism is not as big in our community as it is in some other ones. So, you know, you still have to deal with it. And you still have to recognize this challenge
to have that conversation. Trying to come up with ways and initiatives of getting that message out in such a way that it doesn’t offend [is something], we’re still working on,” he explained. They’re also focusing more attention now toward the Latin community.
Client-Centered Approach
At MCPC, every aspect for a client is covered from getting people in for appointments to helping them access medications and assistance with paying for medication and even follow-up to monitor for compliance issues. Ali Grimsley, the clinic manager at MCPC, laid out how the clinic runs. They see clients
regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. If you have insurance, they will run visits and medications through insurance. If there is a cost not covered by insurance or if a medication is excluded by insurance, they have a financial aid department that can help access copay assistance or other financial help.
Grimsley also explained how they have an entire adherence department. This is a team that focuses solely on making sure patients are getting their prescriptions in a timely manner, that they’re coming to their follow up appointments, and that they’re not having any issues with their refills. “Our adherence department definitely plays a big part [by] checking in on our patients and making sure they have what they need, that they understand the medication and that they’re comfortable with it,” she said.
If there’s something that goes above the adherence department’s ability, medically speaking, they’ll put the patient back in touch with their provider. She also said that the providers have conversations one on one about compliance and following up because every patient is different and they try to tailor to the needs of the individual patient and what works for them.
Ogooue also made note that they have started a program of cultural relevance with patient navigators. Currently, this is focused on African American clients. He explained, “For our African American clients that may come in for STI testing, we have an African American navigator that works with the team. She will go to those clients and talk to them to make sure they understand that if they’re here because they’re at risk for an STI, that also includes HIV.” She will discuss with those individuals the need to consider getting started on PrEP because if they’re at risk for HIV, they need to be thinking about prevention. He said there’s been great success with this approach so far.
MCPC is committed to providing HIV testing and PrEP to everyone who needs them with the goal that one day we will see zero new HIV transmissions.
CONNECT
To learn more about MCPC, PrEP, or to make an appointment, visit https://www.musiccityprep.org/.
