Evaluation of the use of services and health care in the Kenge health zone

Abstract

This article proposes a conceptual model for measuring the use of health services and care comprising three dimensions: structure, process and results. In conducting this study, our concern is to know if the communities of the Kenge health zone are actually using health services and care? The general objective of this study is to assess the use of health services and care in the Kenge health zone. The data were collected based on the quantity and quality evaluation grids implemented by the Health System Development Project, PDSS in acronym. We used secondary data available at the office of the Public Utility Establishment of Performance-Based Financing, EUP-FBP in acronym, which is an agency that purchases data on services used on behalf of the PDSS. Since the evaluation is done quarterly, for the quantity evaluation, the use of services was calculated as a percentage based on the data reported by the structures as well as those verified and validated by the auditors. As for the quality evaluation, after calculating the indicators per quarter, we added the scores of each indicator for all quarters and finally, we calculated the annual average by dividing the scores of each subtotal by 4 (quarters). The quantity assessment showed that the population used the healthcare services made available to them in 2022 (40%) and 2023 (60%). However, there is low utilization despite a slight improvement recorded in 2023. Furthermore, regarding the quality assessment for the two years under study, 2022 (56.8%) and 2023 (60.9%), the level of organizational performance was low. This is because for PDSS, designer of the evaluation grids (quantity and quality), the threshold of 80% shows effective use of services and a very good level of organizational performance. The solution to this low use of services would be the implementation of service delivery reforms that take into account the needs and expectations of the population.

Keywords: accessibility, health care, health zone.

Classification JEL: I11-I110-I120

Paper type: empirical research