Utility of the hospital tuberculosis registry

Emerging guidelines suggest that the management of tuberculosis and suspected tuberculosis in the hospital will become an increasingly costly enterprise. The local hospital registry can be a focal point for determining the extent to which such measures are necessary at individual institutions, that existing infection control recommendations are being carried out, and that patients released from the hospital are not lost to follow-up. Consideration might be given to inclusion of all patients begun on antituberculous therapy, regardless of the results of acid-fast bacilli cultures, in view of renewed concern about patient compliance.