TY - JOUR
T1 - Establishing efficient systems through electronic medical records to promote intra-hospital referrals of hepatitis virus carriers to hepatology specialists
T2 - A multicenter questionnaire-based survey of 1,281 healthcare professionals
AU - Hidaka, Isao
AU - Enomoto, Masaru
AU - Sato, Syuichi
AU - Suetsugu, Atsushi
AU - Matono, Tomomitsu
AU - Ito, Kiyoaki
AU - Ogawa, Koji
AU - Inoue, Jun
AU - Horino, Mika
AU - Kondo, Yasuteru
AU - Sakaida, Isao
AU - Korenaga, Masaaki
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported financially by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan (grant number: H29-kansei-ippan-004).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Japanese Society of Internal Medicine. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/2/1
Y1 - 2021/2/1
N2 - Objective Persistent hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections are major causative factors of hepatic cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. However, the development of antiviral treatment has enabled their suppression. Therefore, the early detection and treatment of these infections are important. The objective of this study was to assess the level of awareness among healthcare professionals about hepatitis virus infection and electronic medical records alert system. Methods We surveyed healthcare professionals from 10 institutions with electronic medical records alert systems. All participants attended a lecture about the reactivation risk due to HBV infections, the most recent antiviral treatment for HCV infections, and the electronic medical records alert system. They participated in a questionnaire-based survey about their awareness of these infections, current status of intra-hospital referral, need for intra-hospital referrals before and after the lecture, and reasons for non-referral of patients to specialists. Results Responses were received from 1,281 healthcare professionals. Physicians and pharmacists had a high level of awareness about HBV and HCV. Among physicians, the level of awareness of those in the surgical field and other fields was significantly lower than that of the professionals in the internal medicine field. The awareness of the need to refer patients to hepatologists increased from 84.7-85.4% before to 93.0% after the lecture. The most frequent reasons for not referring patients previously were “I had no knowledge and/or interest” (28.1% of responses) and “All I did was explain the results orally” (24.2%). Conclusion More widespread education of healthcare personnel is important to increase the number of individuals receiving appropriate treatment from specialist physicians.
AB - Objective Persistent hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections are major causative factors of hepatic cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. However, the development of antiviral treatment has enabled their suppression. Therefore, the early detection and treatment of these infections are important. The objective of this study was to assess the level of awareness among healthcare professionals about hepatitis virus infection and electronic medical records alert system. Methods We surveyed healthcare professionals from 10 institutions with electronic medical records alert systems. All participants attended a lecture about the reactivation risk due to HBV infections, the most recent antiviral treatment for HCV infections, and the electronic medical records alert system. They participated in a questionnaire-based survey about their awareness of these infections, current status of intra-hospital referral, need for intra-hospital referrals before and after the lecture, and reasons for non-referral of patients to specialists. Results Responses were received from 1,281 healthcare professionals. Physicians and pharmacists had a high level of awareness about HBV and HCV. Among physicians, the level of awareness of those in the surgical field and other fields was significantly lower than that of the professionals in the internal medicine field. The awareness of the need to refer patients to hepatologists increased from 84.7-85.4% before to 93.0% after the lecture. The most frequent reasons for not referring patients previously were “I had no knowledge and/or interest” (28.1% of responses) and “All I did was explain the results orally” (24.2%). Conclusion More widespread education of healthcare personnel is important to increase the number of individuals receiving appropriate treatment from specialist physicians.
KW - Awareness survey
KW - Non-specialist physicians
KW - Promotion of treatment
KW - Viral hepatitis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100651920&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85100651920&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2169/INTERNALMEDICINE.4748-20
DO - 10.2169/INTERNALMEDICINE.4748-20
M3 - Article
C2 - 33518608
AN - SCOPUS:85100651920
VL - 60
SP - 337
EP - 343
JO - Internal Medicine
JF - Internal Medicine
SN - 0918-2918
IS - 3
ER -
