Gengiah, S;
Naidoo, K;
Mlobeli, R;
Tshabalala, MF;
Nunn, AJ;
Padayatchi, N;
Yende-Zuma, N;
... Loveday, M; + view all
(2021)
Open Access
A Quality Improvement Intervention to Inform Scale-Up of Integrated HIV-TB Services: Lessons Learned From KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Global Health Science and Practice
, 9
(3)
pp. 444-458.
10.9745/GHSP-D-21-00157.
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Abstract
In South Africa, mortality rates among HIV-TB coinfected patients are among the highest in the world. The key to reducing mortality is integrating HIV-TB services, however, a generalizable implementation method and package of tested change ideas to guide the scale-up of integrated HIV-TB services are unavailable. We describe the implementation of a quality improvement (QI) intervention, health systems’ weaknesses, change ideas, and lessons learned in improving integrated HIV-TB services. / Methods: Between December 1, 2016, and December 31, 2018, 8 nurse supervisors overseeing 20 primary health care (PHC) clinics formed a learning collaborative to improve a set of HIV-TB process indicators. HIV-TB process indicators comprised: HIV testing services (HTS), TB screening among PHC clinic attendees, isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) for eligible HIV patients, antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV-TB coinfected patients, and viral load (VL) testing at month 12. Routine HIV-TB process data were collected and analyzed. / Results: Key change interventions, generated by health care workers, included: patient-flow redesign, daily data quality checks; prior identification of patients eligible for IPT and VL testing. Between baseline and post-QI intervention, IPT initiation rates increased from 15.9% to 76.4% (P=.019), HTS increased from 84.8% to 94.5% (P=.110), TB screening increased from 76.2% to 85.2% (P=.040), and VL testing increased from 61.4% to 74.0% (P=.045). ART initiation decreased from 95.8% to 94.1% (P=.481). / Discussion: Although integrating HIV-TB services is standard guidance, existing process gaps to achieve integration can be closed using QI methods. QI interventions can rapidly improve the performance of processes, particularly if baseline performance is low. Improving data quality enhances the success of QI initiatives.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Open Access A Quality Improvement Intervention to Inform Scale-Up of Integrated HIV-TB Services: Lessons Learned From KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.9745/GHSP-D-21-00157 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-21-00157 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © Gengiah et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly cited. To view a copy of the license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. When linking to this article, please use the following permanent link: https://doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-21-00157. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Inst of Clinical Trials and Methodology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Inst of Clinical Trials and Methodology > MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10137221 |
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