Assessment of Quality of Care Delivered for Infectious Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients in Jimma Zone, South West Ethiopia

BACK GROUND: Providing quality of care for infectious pulmonary tuberculosis patients is crucial in prevention and control of the disease. However, little is known about the existing quality of care in such services. The objective of the study was to assess the quality of care delivered for infectious pulmonary tuberculosis patient in Jimma Zone, South West Ethiopia. METHODS: Facility based cross- sectional study was conducted from January- February 2008 in 10 public health facilities in Jimma Zone. Facility audit was carried out to assess structural quality. Twenty providers were interviewed and records of 299 smear positive patients registered for 1 year was reviewed. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS 11.0 for windows statistical software and findings at 95% CI and p value of 0.05 were reported as statistically significant. RESULTS: The results of the study showed that all the three quality dimensions were graded as poor in all the study health facilities and overall 66.0% of TB patients receive poor quality care. Four variables were identified that significantly predicted treatment success, i.e. conformity to the recommended schedule of sputum smear microscopy, conformity to DOTS drug regimen during both intensive and continuation phase of therapy and quality of registration of patients' medical records. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that most of the problems could be managed at local level, while a few needs further discussion with other management bodies. Success of anti tuberculosis therapy could be ensured through strict adherence to all the elements of DOTS strategy, with special emphasis on the 4 variables that significantly predicted treatment success in the present study. KEYWORDS: Quality, Tuberculosis care, Jimma Zone.