ANALYSIS OF DEMAND IN A SUPPLEMENTARY PRIMARY CARE SERVICE USING THE INTERNATIONAL PRIMARY CARE CLASSIFICATION

Introduction: reasons for encounter between patients and Primary Health Care (PHC) services may be classified with the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC-2). This instrument allows to understand reasons why people seek care, being useful to plan strategies to attend population´s demands. Objective: to analyse reasons for encounter in a private Primary Heath Care service. Methodology: we analysed all reasons for encounter classified with the ICPC-2 related to consultations occurred in four Primary Health Care units in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, between May 2013 and February 2016. Data was extracted in an unidentified way from the electronic medical record database. Results: data related to 32,404 consultations from 10,282 patients generated 42.335 reason for encounter ICPC-2 codes, with an average of 1.3 reasons for encounter per visit. 889 different reasons for encounter were observed; 26 of them accounted for 50% of all contacts. Most of the reasons for visit were related to the ICPC-2 General and non-specific chapter (27% of total), followed by complaints in the musculoskeletal (12%) and respiratory apparatus (10%). About 10.2% of consultations were made for Medical Examination or Preventive Medicine and other 5.2% of visits occurred for Administrative Reasons. Three percent of visits were due to Social Problems. Conclusion: to understand reasons for encounter in the Primary Care context may be helpful to plan strategies to cope with health problems more commonly presented in general population.