AMQ and POA: differences and similarities in the Family Health Program evaluation

Abstract

Introduction: Quality Enhancement Evaluation (QEE) is an instrument established by the Ministry of Health (MH) in order to assess and improve Family Health Program (FHP) teams. Since 2002, the Municipal Secretary of Health of Curitiba relies on the Yearly Operating Plan (YOP), a management strategy directed to results, enhancement, planning and assessment of public health. YOP is a tool comprising 81 indicators. Thus, the city counts on two different forms of quality evaluation at all its Family Health Program units. Objective: The purpose of this article was to analyze the agreements and disagreements between QEE and YOP on the following programs of the Municipal Secretary of Health: Children Health, Adolescent Health, Women Health, Diabetes, Hypertensive Condition and Mental Health. Methodology: The study included 12 FHP teams. In order to carry out a comparative study, AMQ (Instrument 5) and POA (2010) indicators were researched. Simple percentage and discordance analyses were calculated after comparison. Results: QEE and YOP totalized 28 indicators. There was an overall response concordance of 53.6%. Eighty-two percent of the QEE responses were considered totally adequate for the assessed item, while the POA index showed 46.4%. Conclusion: Discordance was observed between the compared items of QEE and YOP. Some of the following factors can be responsible for this discordance: the use of data automatically retrieved through the actions registered by the team on the electronic medical record at YOP and the obligation of its completion. In addition, the QEE non-mandatory data recording and the non-parameterization of the (YES/NO) answers may have contributed to the divergence of the responses.