Hepatitis C & BUHN Inpatient Hepatitis C & B Screening

Currently, there is a lack of literature on programs evaluating rapid screening methods to traditional venipuncture methods for sample collection during screening for viral hepatitis. Due to the relatively low diagnosis and linkage to care rate, screening programs that provide same day results for viral hepatitis infection may improve both diagnosis and enable providers to engage patients shortly after diagnosis. This stands in contrast to the multi-visit, weeks long process that normally accompanies serum testing for hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV). A few American studies have examined the implementation of HCV inpatient screening programs; however, they are focused specifically on high-risk patient populations, the barriers to accessing care experienced by study participants are not relevant to the Canadian healthcare system context, and do not use rapid testing. Furthermore, there are few, if any, data on HBV inpatient screening programs and the diagnosis rate remains low. This project will provide key data on a rapid inpatient screening and linkage to care strategy as well as the prevalence of these viruses across different age bands within the population. Finally, the study will help determine whether rapid inpatient screening is a feasible and acceptable approach for screening and linkage to care.