Hospitalizations due to HCV should be largely avoidable because of the availability of medication that cures HCV (treatment). A downward slope in this trend is desirable as it would show that fewer people in San Francisco are experiencing severe illness requiring hospitalization due to HCV.  

Description of data: Yearly count of inpatient discharges for SF County residents treated in a CA-licensed hospital where a hepatitis C diagnosis code appears as a principal or secondary diagnosis.

Time:

• Data time frame: 2010-2019
• Data as of September 2020

Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria:

Hepatitis C diagnosis codes*:

• Discharges prior to October 1, 2015 (ICD-9-CM): 
  • 070.41: Acute hepatitis C with hepatic coma
  • 070.44: Chronic hepatitis C with hepatic coma
  • 070.51: Acute hepatitis C without hepatic coma
  • 070.54: Chronic hepatitis C without hepatic coma
  • 070.70: Unspecified viral hepatitis C without hepatic coma
  • 070.71: Unspecified viral hepatitis C with hepatic coma
  • V02.62: Hepatitis C carrier
• Discharges beginning October 1, 2015 (ICD-10-CM): 
  • B17.10: Acute hepatitis C without hepatic coma
  • B17.11: Acute hepatitis C with hepatic coma
  • B18.2: Chronic hepatitis C without hepatic coma
  • B19.20: Unspecified viral hepatitis C without hepatic coma
  • B19.21: Unspecified viral hepatitis C with hepatic coma
  • Z22.52: Carrier of viral hepatitis C**
• *: Hospitals began reporting diagnosis codes via ICD-10-CM effective October 1, 2015.  Prior to that, diagnosis codes were reported using ICD-9-CM. 
• **: This code was deleted in October 2016. 

Note: When hospitals report an inpatient discharge record, they must report a principal diagnosis (i.e. principal cause of admission) and may report up to 24 secondary diagnoses. Very few (<2%) of the hep C records (a hep C code in any diagnosis fields - principal + 24 other diagnoses) showed a hep C code as the principal diagnosis. This probably means that very few patients are admitted because of hep C (i.e., principal diagnosis), but are admitted for other conditions (e.g. sepsis, heart attack) which could be complications of hep C. 

Description of Data Source: The Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) is a department within the California Health and Human Services Agency. OSPHD collects data and disseminates information about California’s healthcare infrastructure and publishes valuable information about healthcare outcomes. OSHPD collects and makes publicly available performance, financial, utilization, patient characteristics, and service data from nearly 6,000 California licensed health facilities. Reference: https://oshpd.ca.gov/

The excel data file can be found under File Attachments.