USING THE PRIMARY CARE ASSESSMENT TOOLS (PCAT) IN SPAIN: EVALUATION FROM PRIMARY CARE TEAMS’ (PCT) AND POPULATION’S PERSPECTIVES

Introduction and Objective: The Starfield’ model and instruments were used in Catalonia to complement the evaluation after the PC reform. Objective: to evaluate the performance of PC from the PC teams and population’s perspectives. Methods: In Spain was used PCAT- Facility, with Primary Care Teams (PCT) directors and a selection of items from PCAT-Consumer (10 for adults and 19 for children) were included in the Catalan Health Interview Survey to measure population’s experience . In 2006 was conducted the population survey and in 2007 the PC directors survey in Barcelona Health Region (the largest in Catalonia, with more than 5 million people, and with 194 PCT). The PCAT indexes were used in the 1-4 scale, considering the optimum value 3 or greater. Results and Conclusion: The percentage of PCT with an optimum value in PC domains: 42.9% first contact, 64.7% ongoing care, 43.6% coordination, 78% coordination -information systems, comprehensiveness: 88.7% services available and 89.5% in services provided, 56.4% family focus, 50.4% community orientation and 27.1%.cultural competence. In adult population, PC obtained 7 points on a scale from 0 to 10, without a pattern of social inequality. Under 15, inequalities were detected: families that parents were immigrants declared worst experience with the PC. Conclusion: the PCAT implementation allowed to identify weaknesses of PC in its functions of cultural competence, coordination and first contact. It’s important to measure the quality of PC with equity’s perspective.