Innovation and utility: External Evaluation of the National Program for Access and Quality Improvement in Primary Health Care

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to evaluate the utility of the External Evaluation of the Brasil's National Program for Improvement Access and Quality in Primary Health Care, considered an innovation. It is an evaluation study of the External Evaluation of the PMAQ-AB in the perception of subjects who experienced the conduction of this evaluation through a qualitative case study. The data were collected through a semi-structured interview and the online focal group, and analyzed through the Bardin content analysis. It was observed the involvement of stakeholders with different national management spheres, procedural involvement between the Department of Primary Care and Teaching and Research Institutions, national coverage facilitated with Information Technology resources, negotiation of logistics in loco with municipal managers. Scientific credibility of the evaluators was observed; the relationship between national managers and research institutions did not appear to be conflicting; the institutions uncovered conflicts between managers and Primary Care Teams about the allocation of resources to management. A large scope of information on structure, processes, and results was found; capillarity and access to results. It is concluded that from the perspective of the participants of the study, the External Evaluation proved to be innovative and useful to induce the improvement of the quality of Primary Care.

KEYWORDS
Health evaluation; Primary Health Care; Program evaluation