USAID TBPS: Ending TB Hand-In-Hand with Private Healthcare Providers

Context

Indonesia has the second-highest tuberculosis (TB) burden in the world, with an estimated 1,060,000 new cases in 2022. The United States supports the Government of Indonesia (GOI)’s efforts to reduce this burden by increasing TB case reporting and enhancing the quality of care available through private practitioners, clinics, hospitals, and other healthcare providers.

To achieve TB elimination by 2030, the GOI has put in place a National TB Strategic Plan (NTSP). A steady flow of information about all TB cases—whether treated by private or public health care providers—is crucial to the success of this plan.

USAID TB Private Sector (USAID TBPS)

USAID TBPS supports the GOI’s initiative to increase private sector participation in the NTSP by working with private health facilities to report their TB cases and improve the quality of care. In 2023, USAID TBPS is partnering with five private big chain hospital networks—Primaya, Siloam, Hermina, Pertamedika, and Mitra Keluarga—to screen, diagnose, and treat more TB cases. Through these partnerships, USAID TBPS works in a total of 66 hospitals within these five hospital chains, spread across 24 districts in 9 provinces.

This will be accomplished by:

Supporting hospitals to identify TB patients through systematic screening and provide support for patients to start and stay on treatment;
Assisting hospitals to assess household members and other close contacts for TB, promote referral of patients to the primary care level, and connect hospital information systems to the TB information system to ensure prompt reporting and treatment of cases;
Improving and streamlining the quality of TB services provided by private sector doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and lab technicians by providing enhanced e-learning curricula; and
Collaborating with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to strengthen private provider engagement by implementing Indonesia’s operational plan for public and private health facilities, improving TB case notifications, and improving access to payment incentives for private providers.

Key Results

TBPS has achieved the following key results:

Created a 31-module TB e-learning program on the Ministry of Health’s learning management system, Plataran Sehat, to improve the quality of services provided to TB patients by primary health providers;
Implemented Coaching TB, a training initiative for health workers, which resulted in increased reporting of people with TB symptoms by 46 percent in 27 hospitals; and
Increased utilization of GeneXpert, a test used to diagnose TB, in six targeted districts from 37 percent in 2020 to 92 percent in 2022, improving the likelihood for patients to be accurately diagnosed.