264981 Leveraging Electronic Health Records and Specific Demographic Data to Screen for Hepatitis in a Community Health Center

Monday, October 29, 2012 : 3:30 PM - 3:45 PM

Eve Waltermaurer, PhD , Department of Sociology, State University of New York at New Paltz, New Paltz, NY
Geniene Wilson, MD , Mid-Hudson Family Practice Residency Program, Institute for Family Health, Kingston, NY
  
     
Screening for Hepatitis B is not recommended for the general population, however, screening is indicated for immigrants from endemic countries where prevalence is greater than or equal to two percent. Despite new treatment that is available, diagnosis of chronic hepatitis B is often missed among foreign-born patients from endemic countries leading to worse outcomes in this population.

The Institute for Family Health (IFH), a network of community health centers in New York, first started collecting country of origin data from patients in 2010. IFH then developed a hepatitis B practice alert in our electronic health record. Using new data on patients' country of origin, this alert was programmed to “fire” if a patient is from a hepatitis B endemic country, but had not been tested for or diagnosed with hepatitis B. This project included education on hepatitis B delivered to IFH providers. In the first seven months after implementation, the alert increased the number of patients from hepatitis B-endemic countries who were tested by 146%, with seventeen previously unknown cases of hepatitis B identified. Follow up chart reviews and direct communication to providers regarding the new positive cases was completed to ensure the patients are receiving appropriate care. Future efforts will focus on using more race and granular ethnicity data to fine-tune the best practice alert and other electronic health record tools to assist providers in caring for patients with chronic hepatitis B.

Learning Areas:
Chronic disease management and prevention
Clinical medicine applied in public health
Provision of health care to the public

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the use of an electronic health record and specific demographic data to improve hepatitis B testing and management. 2. Identify one role an electronic health record can play in decreasing disparities in immigrant populations.

Keywords: Hepatitis B, Community Health Centers

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the principal or co-principal investigator in numerous studies in the area of electronic records, screening and measurement in community health environments. Among my scientific interest is to identifying and improving health care services to sub-population typically under-served.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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