Birth-Cohort Evaluation to Advance Screening and Testing for Hepatitis C

Henry Ford intentifies patients meeting birth cohort screening criteria and then sends mailers to those individuals. Mailers contained HCV guidelines, the importance of screening, laboratory slips and locations for patients to act directly on their own behalf. If patients do not respond to the initial mailer, Henry Ford sends additional mailers.

UAB used study coordinators to actively screen and recruit patients who met the inclusion criteria for birth-cohort screening. Study coordinators were located at two internal medicine clinics, where they approached eligible participants in person. A control group was pulled from an additional two internal medicine clinics, which screened using a risk-based strategy. A cross-over approach was used, so that the intervention and control clinics switched at the midpoint of data collection, allowing all four clinics to participate in both arms of the study.

EHR include a Best Practice Alert (BPA) prompting the Medical Assistant and/or clinican to order a Hepatitis C lab test for patients in the birth cohort.