Community health care workers lacked confidence in managing HCV cases

NEW YORK — A majority of health care professionals in a community setting indicated they were not confident in managing treatment for patients with hepatitis C virus infection, according to data presented at the AASLD/EASL Special Conference on Hepatitis C.

Researchers, including Anne Zinski, PhD, University of Alabama at Birmingham, collected data from 41 respondents (response rate, 80%) who completed a nine-item survey regarding their personal practices for HCV and how they believe it should be managed outside of the medical specialty setting. Seventy-five percent of respondents represented primary care and health department settings, and professionals were mainly women (82.9%) and reported an average of 15 years of healthcare practice, according to the research.

Anne Zinski

Approximately 24% of respondents offered HCV screening at their clinical sites and stated that HCV risk was discussed with 15% of patients. None of the responders said they were extremely confident with managing HCV, despite 39.5% indicating they were “very or extremely confident” that managing HCV is a part of their professional role. Approximately 28% of professionals reported they felt “very confident” and 0% indicated they felt “extremely confident” to manage HCV at their sites.

More than half of prescriber respondents (58.3%) were not confident in prescribing medication for HCV to a patient, and 84.2% felt it was “very or extremely appropriate” to have consultation or support services from a liver specialist to manage HCV therapy.

“In this small pilot survey of experienced community and primary health professionals, despite reported confidence that HCV management was part of their professional roles, the majority of health care providers believed that consultation and support from liver specialists is appropriate for managing HCV treatment in community and primary care settings,” the researchers wrote.

"While our ongoing work will explore the role of community providers in HCV care, initial findings highlight several opportunities to enhance HCV management training and develop treatment support collaborations that are tailored to the reported needs of community health professionals," Zinski told Healio.com/Hepatology. – by Melinda Stevens

For more information:

Zinski A. Abstract #47. Presented at: AASLD/EASL Special Conference on Hepatitis C, Sept. 12-13, 2014; New York.

Disclosures: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.