Preliminary Analysis of Follow-up Completion Rate of Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C Screening-positive Patients Using Case Management

Y. CHEN 1 , P. HSU , C. LIN and W. SUNG

Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

To achieve the vision of eliminating hepatitis C, the central government encourages medical institutions to increase screening number. By giving quality-award to hospital with remarkable promotion. Taichung Veterans General Hospital, the biggest medical center in central Taiwan, was the only hospital which receive this award for two consecutive years in central Taiwan. With increasing screening number and regular follow-up, we believe early detection of abnormal lesions as well as treatment can reduce potential chronic inflammation and cancer.

Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) announces the leading cause of death in Taiwan is carcinoma, and the mortality rates of liver cancer is the second highest among carcinoma. The risk factor associated with the development of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma are infected by hepatitis B or C. Attaching importance to hepatitis carrier rates is urgently needed to achieve the global Hepatocellular carcinoma control.

Affected by COVID-19 in 2021, many patients were worried about the risk of being infected by this disease when going to the hospital, so patients' willingness to follow-up was not high. According to statistics of 2022, there were 1698 cases of hepatitis B and hepatitis C screening cases, which contains 154 positive cases. After arranging follow-up appointment with case manager, the follow-up rates of screening-positive patients increased from 48% (75/154) to 62% (96/154). Preliminary finding that case management can improve follow-up rate. During case management, we found many patients had no insight and refused to follow-up use busy as an excuse.

Use the case management model to improve follow up rate of screening-positive patients of hepatitis B and C. This model include :