Delimitación conceptual de la Atención Primaria de Salud

ELORZA, MARÍA EUGENIA; MOSCOSO NEBEL ; LAGO, FERNANDO PABLO

REVISTA CUBANA DE SALUD PúBLICA

Sociedad Cubana de Administración de Salud

Lugar: La Habana; Año: 2017 vol. 43 p. 1 - 17

0864-3466

Introduction. The relevance of the goods and services provided as part of the strategy of Primary Health Care (PHC) is based on the theoretical and empirical evidence found in the last decades. However, there are certain inaccuracies around this concept that hinder its study. Objective.We try to define the concept of primary health care and differentiate it from some related terms: primary care (PC) and first level care (FLC). Methods: we perform a thematic review of the literature related to the concepts under study. Results. The literature review reveals that there are variations of the term PHC that may depend on the specific characteristics of the health systems where they were formulated. Several authors have attempted to establish the differences between them. Conclusions. Although the concepts of PHC, PC and FLC are frequently confused and used as synonyms, the first concept refers to a health policy while the second must be associated with a model of care; finally, the last term corresponds to a level of care in the health system. Palabras claves: atención primaria de salud, servicios de salud, políticas públicas de salud, sistemas de salud, revisión (fuente: DeCS, BIREME).