Early interactions with newly diagnosed TB patients in hospital can to care

BACKGROUND: In South Africa, failure to link individu-als diagnosed with TB to care remains an important gap in the TB care cascade. Compared to people diagnosed at primary healthcare (PHC) facilities, people diagnosed in hospitals are more likely to require additional support to be linked with PHC TB treatment services. We describe a patient interaction process to support linkage to TB care.METHODS: We implemented a step-by-step early pa-tient interaction process with 84 adults newly diagnosed with TB in one district hospital in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa (August 2020-March 2021). We con-firmed patient contact details, provided TB and health in-formation, shared information on accessing care at PHC facilities and answered patients' questions in their home language.RESULTS: Most patients (54/84, 64%) provided up-dated telephone numbers, and 19/84 (23%) reported changes in their physical address. Patients welcomed practical and health information in their home language. The majority (74/84, 88%) were linked to care after hos-pital discharge.CONCLUSIONS: A simple early patient interaction pro-cess implemented as part of routine care is a feasible strategy to facilitate early TB treatment initiation and registration.