Screening for the infection hepatitis C increased fivefold among baby boomers seen in primary care clinics the year following implementation of an EHR alert, according to a study published in Hepatology.
The researchers, led by Monica Konerman, MD, of the Ann Arbor-based University of Michigan, developed an EHR alert to address HCV screening rates at primary care clinics. The alert prompted primary care providers to perform screening for patients born between 1945 and 1965, who lacked prior diagnosis of HCV infection and who lacked prior documentation of anti-HCV testing.
Dr. Konerman's team found the alert successfully encouraged clinicians to screen this population, as well as verify prior HCV testing or diagnosis. Compared to six months before the participating primary care clinics implemented the EHR alert, HCV screenings rates increased from 7.6 percent to 72 percent the year after it was implemented.
"This type of EHR-based intervention represents a low cost, efficient and effective means to improve HCV screening, diagnosis and access to care, which ultimately can lead to mitigation of the associated morbidity and mortality of chronic hepatitis C," Dr. Konerman said in a news release emailed to Becker's Hospital Review.
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