Decision Support Tool for Screening of Tuberculosis Exposed Individuals Seeking Care at a Public Academic Health System

Abstract

Background:Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. At our health system, 50–100 patients are diagnosed with tuberculosis every year. One risk factor for TB is residence within a homeless shelter. In response to an increased number of cases in local homeless shelters, the health department sought assistance with contact tracing of individuals potentially exposed to tuberculosis. We report the results of contact tracing performed at our health system. Methods: The setting is a 770-bed, safety-net, academic hospital with community clinics and a correctional health center. Name, date of birth, and social security number of contacts potentially exposed during February 2009 to July 2013 were programmed into the electronic medical records to create a decision support tool upon entering the health system. The best practice alert (BPA) informed physicians of the exposure and offered a link to a screening test, T-spot.TB, and a link to an information sheet. This intervention was implemented from July 2013 to July 2015. After excluding patients with active TB, data on the magnitude of exposure in each homeless shelter and screening test results were analyzed with ANOVA using SPSS v 26 software. Results: Of the 8,649 identified exposed contacts, 2,118 entered our health system. Of those for whom the BPA was triggered, 1,117 had a T-spot.TB done, with 313 positive results and 57 borderline results. Table 1 shows that shelter 3 was correlated with a positive T-spot.TB. Conclusions: The BPA, which prompted physicians to evaluate an individual for TB, was effective at capturing high-risk, exposed individuals. Clinical decision support tools enabled our safety-net health system to respond effectively to a local public health need.Funding: NoneDisclosures: None