Abstract:ObjectiveTo adapt the consumer version of the Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCAT) for Vietnam and determine its internal consistency and validity.DesignA quantitative cross sectional study.Setting56 communes in 3 representative provinces of central Vietnam.ParticipantsTotal of 3289 people who used health care services at health facility at least once over the past two years.ResultsThe Vietnamese adult expanded consumer version of the PCAT (VN PCAT-AE) is an instrument for evaluation of primary care in Vietnam … Show more
“…Versions of the original tool have been validated and commonly applied around the world successfully [23–26]. The Vietnamese version of this tool (VN PCAT-AE) was validated and demonstrated adequate internal consistency and validity with this study population as a tool for measuring the quality of primary care in Vietnam [27].…”
Section: Methodsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…It also includes three other scales representing three derivative domains: 1) family centeredness (three items), 2) community orientation (five items) and 3) cultural competence (three items). Except for the scale of Family Centeredness (0.68), all of the scales have a Cronbach’s alpha above 0.70 [27]. Fig.…”
Background
Patient experience with primary health care services can vary markedly between different types of health care facilities, even within the same country setting. Given known benefits of high quality primary health care, the performance of these facilities may significantly impact population health. The aim of this study was to compare the quality of primary care in different types of health facilities as experienced by Vietnamese consumers.
Methods
1662 people who utilized primary health care services at least once over the past two years in various types of facilities in central Vietnam were surveyed in a cross-sectional study using the Vietnamese version of the Primary Care Assessment Tool (VN PCAT-AE) to assess overall primary care quality as well as several different domains of high quality primary care services.
Results
Commune health centers were associated with the highest overall primary care quality (PCAT expanded score 21.07,
p
< 0.001) as well as high scores in nearly all individual domains of primary care quality experienced by consumers compared with other types of facilities. Conversely, private facilities such as private clinics and pharmacies were rated lowest overall (PCAT expanded score 18.45,
p
< 0.05 and 16.90, p < 0.001 respectively). District hospitals and other government hospitals (PCAT expanded score 20.10 and 19.72 respectively) were reported as the best quality in comprehensiveness of available services (p < 0.001). Polyclinics performed quite well in comprehensiveness of services available (3.11) and first contact-access (2.79) but less so in other domains, especially in cultural competency (1.87).
Conclusions
The high quality of primary care services experienced by consumers in commune health centers compared with other facilities gives Vietnam ample reason to promote greater use of these community-based primary care facilities. Populations may benefit most from building and strengthening grassroots networks of such community-based health centers as an effective solution for overcrowding at hospitals while simultaneously providing better overall health outcomes.
Electronic supplementary material
The online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-019-4089-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
“…Versions of the original tool have been validated and commonly applied around the world successfully [23–26]. The Vietnamese version of this tool (VN PCAT-AE) was validated and demonstrated adequate internal consistency and validity with this study population as a tool for measuring the quality of primary care in Vietnam [27].…”
Section: Methodsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…It also includes three other scales representing three derivative domains: 1) family centeredness (three items), 2) community orientation (five items) and 3) cultural competence (three items). Except for the scale of Family Centeredness (0.68), all of the scales have a Cronbach’s alpha above 0.70 [27]. Fig.…”
Background
Patient experience with primary health care services can vary markedly between different types of health care facilities, even within the same country setting. Given known benefits of high quality primary health care, the performance of these facilities may significantly impact population health. The aim of this study was to compare the quality of primary care in different types of health facilities as experienced by Vietnamese consumers.
Methods
1662 people who utilized primary health care services at least once over the past two years in various types of facilities in central Vietnam were surveyed in a cross-sectional study using the Vietnamese version of the Primary Care Assessment Tool (VN PCAT-AE) to assess overall primary care quality as well as several different domains of high quality primary care services.
Results
Commune health centers were associated with the highest overall primary care quality (PCAT expanded score 21.07,
p
< 0.001) as well as high scores in nearly all individual domains of primary care quality experienced by consumers compared with other types of facilities. Conversely, private facilities such as private clinics and pharmacies were rated lowest overall (PCAT expanded score 18.45,
p
< 0.05 and 16.90, p < 0.001 respectively). District hospitals and other government hospitals (PCAT expanded score 20.10 and 19.72 respectively) were reported as the best quality in comprehensiveness of available services (p < 0.001). Polyclinics performed quite well in comprehensiveness of services available (3.11) and first contact-access (2.79) but less so in other domains, especially in cultural competency (1.87).
Conclusions
The high quality of primary care services experienced by consumers in commune health centers compared with other facilities gives Vietnam ample reason to promote greater use of these community-based primary care facilities. Populations may benefit most from building and strengthening grassroots networks of such community-based health centers as an effective solution for overcrowding at hospitals while simultaneously providing better overall health outcomes.
Electronic supplementary material
The online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-019-4089-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
“…Policy should address regional cooperation among leading hospitals for cardiovascular care (eg, Ha Noi Heart Hospital, Cho Ray in HCMC, and Hue Central Hospital), satellite hospitals, and referral sites with linkages from home to intervention established through the design of efficient SCPs. Survey tools borrowed from the United States, for example, recently proposed by Hoa et al, 57 are not adapted for the geography, topography, or settings of limited-resource countries. Adding needs assessment of POC and key test clusters to such survey tools will advance standards of primary care, responsiveness for patients who present with chest pain, and critical care support in Central Vietnam.…”
“…It is considered important to improve the quality of PHC in order to build stronger health systems (4) . International studies indicate that PHC contributes to better health (1)(2)(4)(5)(6) , equity (4)(5)(6) and cost reduction outcomes (1,(3)(4)(5)(6) . Therefore, it is essential to evaluate PHC services through the presence and extension of their attributes in order to reorganize the actions for more qualified healthcare (7) .…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCATool) is the most used instrument to evaluate PHC in Brazil, considering that this tool is the closest to the Family Health Strategy (FHS), proposed by the National Primary Healthcare Policy (8) . The PCATool was developed and validated by Barbara Starfield and colleagues (9)(10) , and identifies whether health services and PHC are oriented according to their essential and derived attributes (6)(7) . The essential attributes are: first contact access, longitudinality, comprehensiveness and coordination of care (11)(12) , which are named after their need to provide primary care (13) .…”
RESUMO Objetivo Identificar na literatura a avaliação da qualidade dos serviços de Atenção Primária à Saúde sob a ótica de cuidadores de crianças por meio da aplicação do PCATool, versão infantil. Método Revisão integrativa realizada nas bases de dados MEDLINE, CINAHL, LILACS, BDENF e Web of Science. Resultados Foram selecionados 17 artigos. Todos os estudos incluídos eram descritivos (100%) e possuíam nível de evidência IV (100%). O componente grau de afiliação (média=7,72), do atributo longitudinalidade, o componente utilização (média=7,14), do atributo acesso de primeiro contato, e o componente sistema de informação (média=6,63), do atributo coordenação, apresentaram média dos escores alta (≥6,6), enquanto os demais atributos e componentes obtiveram média dos escores baixa (<6,6). Conclusão Embora a gestão dos serviços de Atenção Primária à Saúde tenha aplicado constantemente esforços para melhorar seu desempenho e qualidade na oferta e prestação da assistência à população, observou-se que problemas relativos ao processo e estrutura destes serviços ainda persistem, tendo em vista que a maioria dos atributos foi avaliada insatisfatoriamente.
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