ABSTRACT
Coordination of care means establishing connections in order to achieve the greater goal of providing /meeting the needs and preferences of users in the provision of health care, with high value, quality and continuity. This essay reviews the theoretical and empirical studies on coordination of care, with the objective of identifying policies, strategies and instruments to achieve better coordination in the Unified Health System. The synthesis is carried out from three dimensions, considered central to analyze this attribute in the context of Primary Health Care (PHC) in Brazil: position of the Family Health Strategy in the care network; integration between care levels and interfaces with care regulation; and horizontal integration with other attention and care devices in the territory. It sought to identify concepts, evidence, results and challenges regarding the coordination of care in the national scenario, as well as to formulate a 'pro-coordination strategic agenda' that recognizes the progress achieved, but also the incompleteness of those initiatives. As the strengthening of PHC is one of the most powerful pro-coordination measures, the reduction of investments and priority in the Family Health Strategy represents the weakening of the consolidation of systemic arrangements, capable of guaranteeing integrality in health.
KEYWORDS
Coordination of care; Primary Health Care; Family Health Strategy