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Abstract
Background
To investigate the effectiveness of the intervention with critical value management and push short messaging service (SMS), and to determine improvement in the referral rate of patients with positive hepatitis C antibody (anti-HCV).
Methods
No intervention was done for patients with positive anti-HCV screening results from 1 January 2015 to 31 October 2021. Patients with positive anti-HCV results at our hospital from 1 November 2021 to 31 July 2022 were informed vide critical value management and push SMS. For inpatients, a competent physician was requested to liaise with the infectious disease physician for consultation, and patients seen in the OPD (outpatient department) were asked to visit the liver disease clinic. The Chi-square correlation test, one-sided two-ratio test and linear regression were used to test the relationship between intervention and referral rate.
Results
A total of 638,308 cases were tested for anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) in our hospital and 5983 of them were positive. 51.8% of the referred patients were aged 18–59 years and 10.8% were aged ≥75 years. The result of Chi-square correlation test between intervention and referral was p = .0000, p < .05. One-sided two-ratio test was performed for statistics of pre-intervention referral rate (p1) and post-intervention referral rate (p2). Normal approximation and Fisher’s exact test for the results obtained were 0.000, p < .05, and the alternative hypothesis p1 − p2 < 0 was accepted. The linear regression equation was referral = 0.1396 × intervention + 0.3743, and the result model p = 8.79e − 09, p < .05. The model was significant, and the coefficient of intervention was 0.1396.
Conclusions
The interventions of critical value management and push SMS were correlated with the referral rate of patients with positive anti-HCV.
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the hard and dedicated work of all the staff that implemented the intervention and evaluation components of the study.
Author contributions
Conception and design of the research: Wei-hua Wang, Yu-jiao Zhang and Jiao-Qian Ying. Acquisition of data: Wei-hua Wang, Tie Zhang, Ling Tu and Ai-hui Zheng. Analysis and interpretation of the data: Tie Zhang, Yun-qing Xia and Hao-di Ma. Statistical analysis: Yun-qing Xia and Wei-hua Wang. Obtaining financing: none. Writing of the manuscript: Jiao-Qian Ying. Critical revision of the manuscript for intellectual content: Yu-jiao Zhang and Peng Gao. All authors read and approved the final draft.
Ethical approval
This study was conducted with approval from the Ethics Committee of China-Japan Friendship Hospital (2020YFC2004803). This study was conducted in accordance with the declaration of Helsinki. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.
Consent form
Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.