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Chest, Vol 86, 860-862, Copyright © 1984 by American College of Chest Physicians

ARTICLES

Reducing tuberculosis detection costs

GW Soo Hoo, DL Palmer and RL Sopher

Use of sputum culture for diagnosis of tuberculosis is an inefficient detection technique in a disease of declining prevalence. We found such testing at our 400 bed acute care hospital resulted in less than 2 percent positive when done with prior patient screening. In an effort to minimize detection costs, restrictions requiring that a tuberculin skin test and chest roentgenogram be performed prior to processing the MTB culture were instituted. This resulted in 672 fewer cultures being processed in the trial year, a significant (44 percent) reduction compared to the prior year. At $50.00 per culture, this represents an annual savings of more than $30,000.




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Copyright © 1984 by the American College of Chest Physicians.