Quality of TB services assessment: The unique contribution of patient and provider perspectives in identifying and addressing gaps in the quality of TB services.

Ambitious efforts to detect and treat tuberculosis (TB) are required to reduce the burden of disease in low resource settings, and the provision of high quality TB services is critical to reaching global TB targets. The quality of TB services assessment (QTSA) is a facility-based approach aimed at identifying gaps in TB services and prioritizing interventions to improve care across multiple countries with high TB burden. Randomly sampled facilities are assessed with standardized instruments to collect data on structures, processes, and outcomes of TB care, with adaption for local diagnostic and treatment algorithms.

Using Patient Pathway Analysis to Design Patient-centered Referral Networks for Diagnosis and Treatment of Tuberculosis: The Case of the Philippines.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is the 8th leading cause of death in the Philippines. A recent prevalence survey found that there were nearly 70% more cases of tuberculosis than previously estimated. Given these new data, the National TB Program (NTP), operating through a decentralized health system, identified about 58% of the estimated new drug-sensitive (DS) TB patients in 2016.