Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec 21;12(4):171-173.
doi: 10.5588/pha.22.0042.

Reasons for missed opportunities to screen and test for TB in healthcare facilities

L de Vos  1 , E Mazinyo  1 , D Bezuidenhout  2 , N Ngcelwane  3 , D S Mandell  4 , S H Schriger  4 , J Daniels  5 , A Medina-Marino  1   4   6
Affiliations

Reasons for missed opportunities to screen and test for TB in healthcare facilities

L de Vos et al. Public Health Action. .

Abstract
in English, French

Missed opportunities for TB screening and/or passive testing in clinics continues to contribute to the number of missed cases. To understand reasons for these missed opportunities, we conducted focus group discussions with clinic-based nurses. Nurses described low indices of suspicion, prioritization of seemingly more urgent ailments and clinic operational challenges as barriers to TB screening and testing. To improve TB screening and testing in clinics, standard patients should be used to identify real-time factors that impact nurses' clinical decision-making and engage in real-time feedback and discussion with nurses to help optimize opportunities for TB screening and testing.

Les occasions manquées de dépistage de la TB et/ou de tests passifs dans les cliniques continuent de contribuer au nombre de cas manqués. Pour comprendre les raisons de ces occasions manquées, nous avons organisé des discussions de groupe avec des infirmières travaillant dans des cliniques. Les infirmières ont décrit les faibles indices de suspicion, la priorité accordée à des affections apparemment plus urgentes et les défis opérationnels des cliniques comme des obstacles au dépistage de la TB. Pour améliorer le dépistage et le test de la TB dans les cliniques, il faudrait utiliser des patients standard pour identifier les facteurs en temps réel qui influent sur la prise de décision clinique des infirmières et engager une rétroaction et une discussion en temps réel avec les infirmières pour aider à optimiser les occasions de dépistage et de test de la TB.

Keywords: TB symptoms; missed cases; qualitative; screening opportunities.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest: none declared.

References

    1. World Health Organization Global tuberculosis report, 2020. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO; 2020.
    1. Moyo S, et al. Prevalence of bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis in South Africa, 2017–19: a multistage, cluster-based, cross-sectional survey. Lancet Infect Dis. 2022;22(8):1172–1180. - PMC - PubMed
    1. South Africa, Department of Health National tuberculosis management guidelines, 2014. Pretoria, South Africa: Department of Health; 2014.
    1. Kweza PF, et al. Estimating the magnitude of pulmonary tuberculosis patients missed by primary health care clinics in South Africa. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2018;22(3):264–272. - PubMed
    1. Divala TH, et al. Missed opportunities for diagnosis and treatment in patients with TB symptoms: a systematic review. Public Health Action. 2022;12(1):10–17. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources