IV International Workshop

Xalapa, Veracruz 24 September– 3 October 2015

2015-10-12

Universidad Veracruzana (Mexico) hosted the IV International Workshop from 24 September to 2 October, counted with the presence of researchers from all participating teams in Latin America (Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Argentina and Uruguay) Belgium and Spain and members of the International Scientific Committee (Dr. Soledad Barria, University of Chile and Dr. Nuria Homedes, University of Texas), the national scientific committee of Mexico and local committees of Mexico and Colombia, which give support to the project both in the research as in the intervention phases.

The preliminary results of surveys conducted in six countries of Latin America, where presented to discuss coordination and continuity of care from the point of view of professionals and users of health services, with a sample of 348 doctors and medical users and 784 in each country.

Perception of doctors on coordination across levels is generally lower, especially in aspects such as exchange of information between levels of care, access to specialized care and perception of proper monitoring of patients.

Low level of use of mechanisms of coordination across levels, in general, focused on the use of referral and cross-referral procedures. Improvement of transfer information across levels and direct communication between professionals were one of the suggestions most frequently mentioned by interviewed professionals.

Regarding users’ opinion, although perception of continuity is high, problems of continuity in transfer information, accessibility across levels and lesser extent in clinical management were detected.

Through a participatory action research methodology, in the next phase of the study, researchers from all Latino American participating countries will meet health professionals and managers of health services networks of the study, to assess what problems are found thanks to the results of qualitative and quantitative studies, selecting the most important and discussing strategies to improve care coordination. Finally, an intervention will be designed in each country to improve coordination across care levels and will be implemented and evaluated in the following phases of the project. 

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