Here, we present a clinical initiative to proactively identify patients with HCV who have clinical encounters within a large healthcare system in Colorado (UCHealth) and connect them with treatment using a dedicated care navigator.
A repository of patients previously diagnosed with HCV who were hospitalized was created by extracting positive HCV PCR test results from the electronic health record (EHR) for patients hospitalized between Jan 1, 2025 and Dec 31st, 2025. In addition, the care navigator queried the EHR weekly to identify patients with newly positive HCV PCR over the past 7 days. The care navigator then reviewed the charts of all identified patients to determine whether each patient had already been linked to HCV care.
Results are preliminary as this project is ongoing. Of 297 charts reviewed, 20.5% were not yet connected with care and were eligible for inclusion. Of other 236 patients, 198 (83.9%) were already encaged in care and 15 (6.4%) were deceased. To date, 55 patients have attempted contact. 25 were unreachable (49%), which meant that they no longer had an operational phone number, or I was unable to leave a message. 11 (21.6%) answered the phone and, of those, 8 were interested in care navigation. 1 was successfully connected with care. The patient mix is 66% male, 33.3% female, 0.3% non-binary, and 0.3% trans female.
Preliminary results demonstrate that many patients with HCV encountered in acute care settings have unique barriers to treatment. Medical and social barriers to care were frequently encountered barriers to linkage to HCV care. Although our findings demonstrate the potential challenges of initiatives targeting high-risk patient populations that may not be receiving longitudinal care, they also highlight the importance of leveraging any clinical opportunity to engage patients in care, including emergency department and inpatient hospitalization encounters.
