Change Paper
Change Paper
Proposal
Tuberculosis, a bacterial infection, most commonly impacts the respiratory system. Tuberculosis can also affect the neurological system, the lymphatic system, blood circulation system, genitourinary system, bones and joint parts. Often Called TB for short, tuberculosis is the most common major contagious disease today. With that title the virus is infecting two billion people which are approximately one-third of the global population. Latent tuberculosis disease is when a person is contaminated with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but does not have signs of illness. They are said to be without signs. Active tuberculosis illness is the full-blown illness and if not handled and treated accordingly, will kill half of the patients. Signs and symptoms, cough with expectoration, weight loss, feverishness, night sweats, all these symptoms slowly over several months. The diagnosis is made by highlighting the Koch bacillus in sputum samples of virus and lesions in the lung. Once diagnosed, TB requires treatment with a combination of at least four types of drugs taken daily for two months, then two kinds of medicines to be taken three times per week for four months yet. Early symptoms could be excessive fatigue, slight rise of temperature in the evening, slight palpitation and rapid pulse, and chest pain.
If the patient is discharged to a hospital and eventually readmit, normal procedure would be to do a tuberculosis questionnaire. That is a good practice so that the medical practitioner will be able to include the patient's tuberculosis history in his medical files. However, one the patient is readmitted to a hospital, it would be better to do some tests or repeat the tuberculosis tests after patient answered the tuberculosis questionnaire. This is to ensure that the person is tuberculosis free patient and to help the doctors diagnose the exact illness of the person accurately. A person may not be positive in mycobacterium tuberculosis the first time he or she was admitted in the hospital; he or she may have similar symptoms primarily, but ended up with diagnosed with another disease. However, it does not mean that this patient will not be possible to have tuberculosis the second time he or she is admitted in the hospital. It should be a practice that a hospital must do another random tuberculosis tests to a person to ensure accuracy of medical findings even if the suspected person is not asking for it. It should be one of the standard operating procedure. It is more of assuring that the disease will not spread or pass on to others because if a person is positive with tuberculosis and detected right away it will eliminate infecting other people as well.
The problem is the tuberculosis testing when a patient is admitted in the hospital, wherein it will take another 24 to 48 hours before the patient undergoes the tests. Tests will be conducted to the patient couple hours which should be changed as a part of standard operating procedure. It can make a big difference in terms of treating the suspected tuberculosis patient in a rapid way. Medical Doctors Francis Varaine and Michael Rich (2013) says that the transmission of M.tuberculosis from human-to-human and is mainly propagate by an air-borne path. The source of disease is an individual with pulmonary or laryngeal tuberculosis who expectorates bacilli. During coughing, speaking, or sneezing, the infected person generates small contagious small droplets. These contaminants, called droplet nuclei, are about 1 to 5 microns across. Droplet nuclei can stay in the air for several hours, based on the surroundings (Varaine & Rich, 2013).
Patients will just be answering several questionnaires once admitted. This is another procedure that needs to be changed. It does not necessarily means that a person will not be infected if he or she was able to undergo the tests previously. Patients also need to be encouraged to have follow-up check ups. As what the City Health Information (2006) says that Patients need to be encouraged to return monthly for follow-up visits, and providers need to educate patients about both the potential adverse effects of treatment and the importance of treatment adherence and completion (City Health Information, p.30,).
Plan for Opportunities
The proposed change will provide comprehensive results of the tests that will be conducted to a suspected tuberculosis patient, hence, providing a more accurate findings and diagnosis of the disease. Letting the patient know of what their real medical case is, will set their right expectation of his or her illness. The proposed change will also help the society to be more aware of how the tuberculosis disease quickly spreads and may help them prevent themselves from being infected in a way that an infected person will be treated right away.
Implementation
Hospitals and other health organizations should also make some ways on how to prevent the spreading of tuberculosis disease. There can be some plans that can be taken which are composed of some medical staff or committee.
Organizations may establish a team or committee responsible for implementation of the processes. It is important to have a dedicated team or an existing facility committee that can include this responsibility in its scope of work, or a new team can be created as well. Initially, the committee’s main responsibility would be to make sure that particular organized actions are being implemented; thereafter its main responsibility could change to tracking their success and starting and leading enhancement initiatives.
Evaluation
At first tuberculosis impacted artists and well-known individuals, but as the plague was growing consistently, more and more individuals got infected such as inadequate and deprived individuals, and so, TB was thought to be related to a individuals way of life, hence, there are a variety of assessments that physicians need to execute before detecting TB. They include a chest area x-ray, tuberculin skin assessments, blood tests and time evaluation and microbiological cultures of fluids. Dealing with TB is a challenging process for physicians and patients. It requires various medications. Sometimes there are strains of TB that can be resistant to medications. As of right now, it looks as if TB will never be eliminated globally because of the growth of drug-resistant strains. This makes it challenging for physicians to cure their patients because medications will not do the trick for the disease.
References
Framework for Implementing New Tuberculosis Diagnostics. (2010, June). Retrieved April 8, 2013, from http://www.who.int/tb/laboratory/whopolicyframework_july10_revnov10.pdf
Ijaz, K., Dillaha, J., Yang, Z., Cave, M., & Bates, J. (n.d.). Unrecognized Tuberculosis in a Nursing Home Causing Death with spread tuberculosis in the Community. Retrieved from http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/65314/j.1532-5415.2002.50307.x.pdf;jsessionid=4B2AA8C76971AFEDCBB24359B23C60B1?sequence=1
MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH Division of Tuberculosis Prevention and Control. (2007, March). Retrieved from http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/docs/dph/cdc/infection-control/twosteptb.pdf
Roberts, R. (n.d.). New Tuberculosis Testing Rules Take Effect January 16, 2013. Retrieved from http://www.state.ia.us/government/dia/Tuberculosis_Testing_Rules.pdf
RULES OF ALABAMA STATE BOARD OF HEALTH ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://adph.org/HEALTHCAREFACILITIES/assets/nursingfacilitiesrules.pdf
TESTING AND TREATMENT FOR LATENT TB INFECTION. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/chi/chi25-4.pdf
Tuberculosis Control Laws and Policies. (2009, October 1). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/tb/programs/TBLawPolicyHandbook.pdf
Tuberculosis. (2013). Retrieved April 8, 2013, from http://www.refbooks.msf.org/MSF_Docs/En/Tuberculosis/Tuberculosis_en.pdf
