Objective:

to evaluate the performance of Primary Health Care (PHC) in Florianopolis, SC, Brazil.

Methods:

this was a cross-sectional population-based study with adults living in the catchment areas of the Health Centers (HC) located in the Northern Health District of Florianópolis in 2012; the Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCATool-Brazil) was applied do assess the presence and extent of PHC characteristics.

Results:

of the 598 interviewees, 68,4% reported that they considered PHC centers to be their usual source of care; while the usage subdimension of the First Contact Access characteristic was the best evaluated (8.4; 95%CI 8.2;8.6), the service delivery subdimension of the First Contact Access/subdimension accessibility was the worst evaluated (3.5; 95%CI 3.3; 3.6); four (36.6%) of the eleven PHC centers evaluated had a high overall and essential PHC score, although their overall mean score was low (6.4; 95%CI 6.2;6.5).

Conclusion:

considering the PHC model evaluated by PCATool-Brazil, PHC services need to be improved, especially with regard to their process and structure components.

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