Effect of a Best Practice Alert on Birth-Cohort Screening for Hepatitis C Virus

INTRODUCTION: We assessed the influence of a best practice alert (BPA) embedded within the electronic medical record on improving hepatitis C virus (HCV) birth-cohort screening by primary care physicians (PCPs). METHODS: Screening by 155 PCPs was monitored during 2 consecutive 9-month periods before and after implementation of the BPA. All tests were reviewed to differentiate true screening from other testing indications. RESULTS: Of 155 PCPs, 131 placed screening orders before and after BPA. Twenty-two PCPs started testing after BPA (P = 0.02). The number of tests placed and screening rates per PCP increased from 16 to 84 and from 3.3% to 13.2%, respectively (P < 0.0001). Before BPA, most PCPs rarely ordered screening HCV tests, whereas a small group of physicians generated most tests, indicative of an underlying power-law distribution. After the BPA, a new group of high-performing PCPs emerged, whose screening patterns were again characterized by a power-law distribution. However, pre-BPA test rates of individual PCPs were not predictive of their post-BPA rates. Overall, the introduction of the BPA narrowed the gap between low- and high-performing testers, indicating that modest increases in testing by a large number of low-performing PCPs could drive substantial improvement in program implementation. DISCUSSION: HCV birth-cohort screening by PCPs was shaped by an underlying power-law distribution. This distribution was preserved after the implementation of a BPA, although pre-BPA test rates were not predictive of post-BPA rates. Increases in test rates by high- and low-performing PCPs both contributed to the overall success of the BPA.