|  University Service Partnership
The TB Care Centre is an initiative of the School of Public Health at Wits, established in conjunction with clinicians and management of Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital. The aim of the Centre is to establish a system of referral for patients with tuberculosis when they are discharged from the hospital to other health facilities, as well as systems for education of patients, and accurate documentation of all patient diagnosed with TB at the hospital.
It exemplifies a systems approach to a major public health problem and promotes a team approach for the comprehenesive management of TB. Large numbers of patients are diagnosed at the hospital (about 7000 per year) and they start their long (six months for first-course for TB) treatment journey at the TB care centre.
Activities:
Every patient diagnosed with TB from any in-patient or outpatient facility at the hospital is referred to the TB Care Centre to see staff. They are registered using an electronic register to complete a data-base of all TB patients, informed and educated about their disease, and referred to specific facilities for their continuation treatment on specific dates. TB drugs are provided for clinic-referred patient for 5 days. Four nurses see the patients, records are kept by 2 administrators. Patient Education
The Centre provides a video entitled "TB. Understanding it better: What TB patients need to know". This fills the need for material to inform patients already diagnosed with TB. It is screened regularly for patients in the Centre waiting room and has been shared widely in facilities in other provinces.
Data Collection
The Centre has provided a model for registration of hospital patients with TB for other hospitals. The modified ETR (electronic TB register) saves time spent on manual data collection and analyis. In particular, collection of deaths in hopsital which account for 22% of all registrations has highlighted the current incompleteness of the current system.
Gauteng provincial government and Johannesburg Metro health department links
The TB Care Centre has the support of the Gauteng provincial health department as well as the Johannesburg Metropolitan health department, with whom there is a formal partnership agreement.  Hospital TB Committee
A formal TB committee has been established and facilitated. Members include representatives of the district TB service, clinical depts., the National health Laboratory service, hospital pharmacy, TB hospitals, the Correctional Service health department and the hospital TB Care Centre.
Research
A number of research projects are carried out at the Centre with international and local funding. Projects include measures of effectiveness and efficiency of the Centre, numbers and types of patients with TB seen at the hospital, referrals for suspected TB from health facilities to Baragwanath hospital and a study of TB management at health centres and clinics in Soweto, focusing on issues of different health authorities and the constraints imposed by these.
Other studies include:measuring the process of facilitating the establishment of similar centres at other hospitals in Gauteng; TB culture testing at the hospital; a study of sputum turnaround times at district clinics; and an evaluation of video based educational materials. . Education:
An objective of the Centre is to be a centre of excellence for education on TB for health workers of various categories, employed by different authorities and working in different levels of health care, as well as in the private sector. Service excellence award
In 2004 the Centrereceived first prize for the hospital section of the regional service excellence competition in Gauteng. They were given a trophy, a certificate and R3000. | 
