The Doctor Molina Orosa Hospital and the Primary Care Technical Unit of Lanzarote have been accredited as a Basic Tuberculosis Unit, a recognition granted by the Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR).
This distinction, according to the Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, certifies that both comply with very demanding quality of care criteria and that refer, in this case, both to healthcare activity and to the existence of specific technical and human resources, training, teaching and research aspects.
The Basic Tuberculosis Unit of Lanzarote is the second in the Canary Islands to receive this accreditation, after the Specialized Tuberculosis Unit of High Complexity of the Doctor Negrín University Hospital of Gran Canaria. In total, in all of Spain there are 25 units of all levels that have this accreditation.
SEPAR evaluates the requests that are made in different areas (tuberculosis, asthma, sleep pathology, etc.) by clinical pulmonology units in the country. These evaluations are carried out following annual or biannual calls by SEPAR and the documentation sent is analyzed by an Evaluation Committee that verifies that the requirements to receive the corresponding accreditation are met.
Decrease in cases after the creation of the unit in 2004
In the Lanzarote Health Area there has been a Tuberculosis Coordination Unit since 2004. This has a multidisciplinary nature, since it is coordinated by a case management nurse from the Primary Care Directorate and integrates the work of both pulmonologists and microbiologists as well as internists and pediatricians from Specialized Care.
The case management nurse is responsible for supervising contact studies, coordinating the Primary Care physicians involved, carrying out health interventions if required (such as, for example, contact studies in schools), monitoring therapeutic compliance and ensuring disease declarations to the General Directorate of Public Health.
The other members that make up the unit are the center's pulmonologists, the microbiologist responsible for the mycobacteria area, pediatricians and Internal Medicine professionals who have used the services of the Unit when necessary.
Since the creation of the Tuberculosis Unit in 2004, the incidence of cases has been decreasing from a rate of 44.53 cases per 100,000 inhabitants to only 8.38 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015, according to the latest results published by the General Directorate of Public Health.
