Differences in inpatient and outpatient hepatitis C virus prevalence and linkage to care rates in a safety net hospital hepatitis C screening program.

We found significant differences in prevalence of anti-HCV and LTC rates between inpatients and outpatients during an HCV screening program. Higher anti-HCV prevalence among inpatients may be due a higher prevalence of non-birth year HCV risk factors. LTC rates were lower in the inpatient setting despite a robust linkage strategy. The striking prevalence of HCV in both settings warrants continued screening, expansion to additional settings, and novel strategies to improve inpatient linkage rates, especially in the setting of new universal HCV screening guidelines.