Abstract

Background:The nationwide tuberculosis registry system in Korea has been operated with the dual reporting system - public health center (PHC) and private medical services (PMS) - since 2000. While three-fifths of the registered cases in 2002 was reported by PMS, it was reported that the success rate of patients at PMS was lower than that at PHC. To identify the problems of the patients' management at the PMS as well as the PHC in a community is the aim of this paper.Methods : The subject was selected from the registered cases of the pulmonary tuberculosis in Jejudo, 2002. The needed items for this study were gathered by the reviewing the medical charts directly. Results : Of the 262 patients included in the subject, 92 cases (35%) were treated initially at PMS. The sputum smear as an essentially diagnostic test was carried out with 69.2% at private clinics compared with 98.2% at PHC. The success rate of the treatment at PMS was 59.8% so that it had a statistically significant difference from that at PHC (80.0%; p<0.01).Conclusion : These results showed that there were several problems in diagnosis and treatment for the patient of pulmonary tuberculosis at PMS. To improve the success rate of the treatment at PMS, the nationwide clinical guideline for control of pulmonary tuberculosis should be systematically disseminated and strongly recommended at PMS by the government. (Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases 2004, 56:356-363)