ANALYSIS OF PATIENTS SATISFACTION AND PRO DUCTIVITY IN A PRIMARY HEALTH-CARE MODEL, PARTICIPATING ALLIED HEALTH PERSONNEL AND PHYSICIANS

To attend health requirements of a poor community nearby Mexico City, the Ministry of Health, implemented an innovative health services mode l, compounded by allied health personnel (AHP) and general practitione rs. The main feature of this model is that the AHP had been involved t o provide clinical services in five causes of consultation: upper acut e respiratory infections, diarrheal disease, prenatal care, family pla nning and well-child program. In this paper, the authors analyze the p atient's satisfaction and the productivity of this model compared with the conventional one. In order to evaluate patient's satisfaction, 50 0 patients were interviewed, 300 who were attended by innovative model and 200 who were attended by the traditional one. In both health serv ices models a high percentage (98%) of the patients were satisfied wit h the attention they received. The productivity analysis showed that t he number of consultations given for the five causes mentioned above a nd for other causes, was higher in the innovative model than in the tr aditional one. The relevance of the allied health personnel to provide primary care services is discussed.