Our Partnership with DOH and Local Health Authorities
Culion Health is the government's partner in complementing the TB program
With the public health as our core, Culion Health is a reliable partner of Department of Health and provincial/city/municipal health offices in complementing the implementation of the TB program strategies, mainly on private sector engagement and provision of patient-centered care to TB patients.
We engage private hospitals by encouraging them to host hospital-based TB clinics in their facilities, which will be operated by Culion Health. We believe that this approach is effective in engaging private sector, as we make it easy for the hospital-based physicians to refer their TB cases, while providing quality care to their patients.
During our first year of operations in 2021, despite the general decrease in case finding brought by surges of COVID-19 cases, we were able to significantly improve the engagement of private sector to the TB program in our project sites. In Calapan City, from 14 in 2019, the private sector referrals went up to 132. In Pagadian, from 66 in 2019, the referrals went up to 168, all through our hospital-based TB clinics. In Zamboanga, the private sector referral improved from 254 to 335, with 204 patients referred through our clinic in Zamboanga Peninsula Medical Center.
In fact, our TB clinics are already the top TB clinics in Calapan, Pagadian, and Zamboanga contributing to the case finding, exceeding the contributions of local government-run health centers, and relying solely on private sector referrals. Our bacteriologic confirmation is also high, from 40% in Calapan to 70% in Zamboanga, reflecting our effort to follow the diagnostic algorithm of our TB program.
We also significantly contributed in the provision of Tuberculosis Preventive Therapy (TPT) in our project sites. In Calapan and Pagadian, our clinic is the only one which provided TPT in 2021.
Aside from improving private sector referral, Culion Health also performs the following:
We engage private hospitals by encouraging them to host hospital-based TB clinics in their facilities, which will be operated by Culion Health. We believe that this approach is effective in engaging private sector, as we make it easy for the hospital-based physicians to refer their TB cases, while providing quality care to their patients.
During our first year of operations in 2021, despite the general decrease in case finding brought by surges of COVID-19 cases, we were able to significantly improve the engagement of private sector to the TB program in our project sites. In Calapan City, from 14 in 2019, the private sector referrals went up to 132. In Pagadian, from 66 in 2019, the referrals went up to 168, all through our hospital-based TB clinics. In Zamboanga, the private sector referral improved from 254 to 335, with 204 patients referred through our clinic in Zamboanga Peninsula Medical Center.
In fact, our TB clinics are already the top TB clinics in Calapan, Pagadian, and Zamboanga contributing to the case finding, exceeding the contributions of local government-run health centers, and relying solely on private sector referrals. Our bacteriologic confirmation is also high, from 40% in Calapan to 70% in Zamboanga, reflecting our effort to follow the diagnostic algorithm of our TB program.
We also significantly contributed in the provision of Tuberculosis Preventive Therapy (TPT) in our project sites. In Calapan and Pagadian, our clinic is the only one which provided TPT in 2021.
Aside from improving private sector referral, Culion Health also performs the following:
- Provision of provider-initiated counselling and testing (PICT) on HIV for its patients, in coordination with our respective city health offices.
- Dissemination of printed copies of latest edition of NTP Manual of Procedures not only to private doctors but also to provincial health offices and rural health units.
- Webinars on diagnosis and management of TB specifically intended for clinicians, inviting prominent pulmonologists in the country as speakers, who are also TB private sector advocates.
- Close coordination with DOH regional coordinators, provincial health offices, and city health offices in complementing the TB program.
- Internal data quality check to ensure that our data in ITIS are accurate and timely.
- Active participation in local DOH activities.