SUBSTANTIATION OF COMPONENTS OF AVAILABILITY AND INTEGRATION OF PRIMARY HEALTH CARE ASSOCIATED WITH AMBULATORY CARE SENSITIVE CONDITIONS IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The aim: Identifying the components of availability of Primary Health Care (PHC) and integration between PHC and secondary Health care (SHC) which need strengthening to reduce the rate of Ambulatory Care Sensitive Hospitalizations (ACSH) in Ukraine. Materials and methods: The study was conducted in two stages: the focus of interviewing experts on the list of components of the availability of PHC and its integration with SHC; survey of our questionnaire is based on the results of the first stage of the study. The responses of 93 respondents – 20 experts and 73 general practitioners/family doctors – were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics. Results: There were identified 14 components of PHC availability and 8 integration components of PHC with SHC, their quantitative value (in points) of impact on ACSH. The informativeness of components is confirmed by the agreement of opinions of experts on their list (concordance coefficient W = 0.75 -0.87; p <0.01) and the reliable correlations of scores of impact assessments of the identified components with overall values of the impact availability PHC and the integration between PHC and SHC on the ACSH. Conclusions: The results of the study can be used to develop an action plan for reform of PHC, the implementation of which will reduce rates hospitalizations of Ambulatory care sensitive conditions and increase the efficiency use of limited resources of health care system of Ukraine.