Evaluating the impact of sustainable comprehensive primary health care on rural health

Abstract

Inadequate health services limit access to health care, delay use at times of need and result in poor health outcomes. Currently, there is a lack of evidence from rigorous health service evaluations to indicate which rural health services work well, where and why that could inform rural health policies and funding. Although the nature of health service models will vary across communities in order to meet their differing geographic circumstances, there is considerable scope for the translation and generalisation of evidence gained from health service models that are shown to be sustainable, responsive and able to deliver local quality health care. This framework can guide future health service evaluation research and thereby provide a better understanding of a health service's impact on the health of the community and its residents.

Sustainable workforce and sustainable health systems for rural and remote Australia

“…Rigorous health service evaluation can both contribute to health service quality improvement and inform evidence-based policy and practice. 16,23,24 Governments also need to move away from the dominant silo mentality to a genuinely whole-of-government approach in order to meet the health needs of rural and remote communities and address the underlying social and economic determinants of health.…”

Strengthening primary health care: achieving health gains in a remote region of Australia

“…A framework for monitoring the impact of changes to PHC services on population outcomes was developed for the Fitzroy Valley to take into account its specific demography and characteristics. Building on a similar framework used for a small rural community in Victoria, 7 this framework incorporates the key requirements for high‐quality health service performance 8 and draws on the links between structure, process and outcomes described by Donabedian 9 . The development of this evaluation framework required a targeted literature review and validation workshops with stakeholders and national experts in rural and remote PHC evaluation.…”

Study protocol: Evaluating the impact of a rural Australian primary health care service on rural health

“…The longitudinal evaluation framework evolved from Donabedian's quality of care paradigm linking structure, process and outcome[14] and a conceptual framework for primary health care performance assessment developed originally by Sibthorpe[15], as reported in another publication[16]. This evaluation aims to examine the health service over a six year period in terms of:…”