Assessment of attributes of primary health care from the perspective of physicians

• Autor(a) principal: Costa, Ana Paula Brandão
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Guerra, Maximiliano Ribeiro, Leite, Isabel Cristina Gonçalves
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Medicina de Família e Comunidade (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://rbmfc.org.br/rbmfc/article/view/3085
• topic: Primary health care; Health services research; Health personnel.; Atenção primária à saúde; Avaliação de serviços de saúde; Profissionais de saúde.; Atención primaria de salud; Investigación sobre servicios de salud; Personal de salud.

Introduction: The presence and extent of the attributes of Primary Health Care are determining factors in the effectiveness of primary healthcare services. Objective: To evaluate the implementation of Primary Health Care attributes from the perspective of physicians working in Health Centers (UBS). Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, carried out using the health professionals’ version of the Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCATool-Brasil) and a sociodemographic questionnaire to characterize education profile, professional experience, and performance at the Primary Health Care. The study participants were physicians from units of the Family Health Strategy, traditional, and mixed Health Centers, in the city of Juiz de Fora, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Results: The means in the general, essential, and derivative scores of the attributes of Primary Health Care presented a score deemed satisfactory (≥6.6). However, the professionals evaluated the accessibility attribute as unsatisfactory. Moreover, the continuity and coordination/integration attributes achieved unsatisfactory evaluation among physicians with shorter time of activity in Primary Health Care, whereas the attributes of continuity and family orientation had an unsatisfactory evaluation from physicians who have not attended graduate courses in Family and Community Medicine or related areas. Conclusions: The study points to the need for expansion of accessibility to the services of primary health care, for the search for alternatives to appreciate and maintain physicians at Primary Health Care, in addition to promoting the education and training of health professionals, seeking to provide an increase in the problem-solving capacity and quality of services.