Quality of primary care services in 37 cities of the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil: Characteristics of the organization of assistance

In the last 15 years have seen great growth in the number of primary care services in Brazil mainly depending on the policy of extending from the strategy for Family Health. To assess the quality of actions developed in the basic network of services is a major challenge given its organizational diversity and inclusion in loco-regional contexts with diverse and complex needs of health. To evaluate the quality of primary health care in 37 counties of central-western Sao Paulo, with reference to the characteristics of the organization's assistance. Cross-sectional study with the construction of structured instrument based on organizational characteristics of the work process, set from quantity-quality study conducted preliminarily. We studied 131 units of the core network distributed in 37 municipalities in a regional health of the state of Sao Paulo. Results: were obtained response of 114 units (87.02% of basic units) located in 32 municipalities (86.48% of all municipalities). Of these 57 (50%) were traditional units, 26 (22.8%) units of family health, 13 (11.4%) with UBS program for community workers, 13 (11.4%) UBS with teams of health family and associates 5 (4.4%) mixed. The material collected can also discuss the characteristics of the main programs, procedures and actions made by departments. Conclusion: The core network is regarded today as structuring axis of SUS, both needs to be better known. The development of self-assessment lets the teams' ownership to critical of their own work and can draw up new arrangements for technological improvements in quality.