Introduction: Well-coordinated multidisciplinary teams are essential for better tuberculosis (TB) control. Our objective was to evaluate the impact of Spanish Society of Pneumology (SEPAR) accreditation of TB Units (TBU) and to determine differences between the accredited and non-accredited centers.
Design: Observational descriptive study based on a self-administered survey from October 2014 to February 2018 completed by 139 heads of respiratory medicine departments collected by SEPAR, before and after TBU accreditation.
Variables: demographic, epidemiological and contact tracing (CT) variables, among others.
Analysis: basic descriptive analysis, and calculation of medians for continuous variables and proportions for categorical variables. The variables were compared using the Chi-squared test and logistic regression.
Results: The response rate was 54.7% and 43.2% in the pre- and post-TBU accreditation period, respectively. No differences were observed in the care and coordination variables between the pre- and post-accreditation survey, nor in the organization when only accredited centers were analyzed. When we compared the accredited and non-accredited centers, significant differences were detected in the collection of the final conclusion, management of resistance, coordination with other departments, contact tracing, and directly observed treatment.
Conclusions: The approach of different professionals with regard to TB has been addressed. Positive aspects and areas for improvement have been detected, and better results were observed in the accredited versus non-accredited centers. A closer supervision of TBUs is necessary to improve their effectiveness.
Keywords: Accreditation; Acreditación; Centros sanitarios; Contact tracing; España; Estudio de contactos; Health centers; Neumología; Organización; Organization; Pneumology; Spain; Tuberculosis.
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