Reduced health provider delay and tuberculosis mortality due to an improved hospital programme.

SETTING: A referral hospital in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of an in-hospital tuberculosis (TB) quality care programme initiated in May 2005 on health provider delay and outcome of newly diagnosed TB cases.

DESIGN: Retrospective chart review of newly diagnosed TB cases presenting in 2002 and 2006. Health provider delay, clinical manifestations, management and outcome were recorded.

RESULTS: Overall, 327 patients before (2002) and 262 patients after (2006) the programme began were enrolled. Patients were older men (mean age 65.9 years) and 23.4% (138/589) had diabetes; 84.4% had received anti-tuberculosis treatment. The programme shortened the time for doctors to order a chest X-ray (P < 0.01), and the reporting time for smear (P < 0.0001) and culture (P < 0.0001). On multivariable analysis, risk factors for attributable mortality included age >/=65 years (OR 4.4, 95%CI 1.8-10.9, P = 0.001) and liver cirrhosis (OR 4.3, 95%CI 1.1-16.6, P = 0.04). Treatment reduced mortality by 81% (OR 0.2, 95%CI 0.1-0.4, P < 0.001) and the programme halved overall mortality (OR 0.5, 95%CI 0.3-0.8, P = 0.01), and reduced attributable mortality by 62% (OR 0.4, 95%CI 0.2-0.8, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSION: Intervention at the hospital level for quality control of TB care was instrumental in reducing health provider delay and led to a significant reduction in mortality.