Performance of primary health care according to PCATool instrument: a systematic review

Abstract

This study aims to analyze studies that evaluated the performance of Primary Health Care (PHC) services by using the Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCATool) under a worldwide user perspective. This is a systematic review that implemented the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) model, from the following databases: Lilacs, Medline, SciELO, PubMed and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) Journals Website, using descriptors Primary Care Assessment Tool and PCATool. Considering inclusion and exclusion criteria, we analyzed 22 research papers published from 2007 to 2015. The best-evaluated attributes were cultural competence, first contact use and longitudinality. On the other hand, the worst evaluated were first contact accessibility, family orientation, community orientation and comprehensiveness. Most of the health services evaluated were from Brazil, applied to “traditional” primary care clinic (UBS) and the Health Family Strategy (FHS). Services evaluated should strengthen structure and process components to achieve a better performance in PHC.