This paper presents the development, validation and utilization of a methodology for assessing the quality of the primary health care services of Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS - Brazil's National Health System), the Questionnaire for the Assessment of the Quality of Primary Health Care Services - QualiAB. It is addressed to all primary health care services, organized according to different care models, including Family Health. It contains 50 indicators about availability and organization of the care and programmatic work, and 15 about local management, in the form of multiple choice questions self-responded through the Web by the local service team. It attributes to every answer the values zero, one or two; the general average attributes a 'quality degree' to the service, expressed by the distance to the best standard corresponding to the average two. It was built by an interactive consensual process, which included qualitative methodologies, pilot-testing, application to 127 services, construct validation and reliability. It was answered in 2007 by 598 (92%) services of 115 municipalities of the State of São Paulo, showing good sensitivity to differentiate quality levels. It was adopted in 2010 as part of a supporting program to the Primary Health Care of São Paulo's State Health Department, being answered by 95% (2735) of the services of 586 cities (90,8% of the State). The results were sent to the municipalities. QualiAB provides a valid and simple assessment, with immediate feedback to managers and professionals. It has shown feasibility, acceptability, power to differentiate quality levels and utility to help the management of the primary health care network of SUS in São Paulo. This experience might be extended to Brazil as a whole.
Health Evaluation; Primary Health Care; Health Management; Health Systems; Methodology