Operational research in primary health care planning: a theoretical model for estimating the coverage achieved by different distributions of staff and facilities

摘要

This report outlines a basic operational research model for estimating the coverage achieved by different distributions of primary health care staff and facilities, using antenatal home visiting as an illustrative example. Coverage is estimated in terms of the average number of patient contacts achieved per annum. The model takes into account such features as number of facilities and health workers per 10 000 population, the radius of the health facility area, the overall population density in the region, the number of working days in the year, and the health worker's travelling time and work rate.A theoretical planning situation is also presented, showing the application of the model in defining various possible strategies, using certain planning norms for new levels of staff and facilities.This theoretical model is presented as an example of the use of operational research in primary health care, but it requires to be tested and validated in known situations before its usefulness can be assessed. Some indications are given of the ways in which the model could be adapted and improved for application to a real planning situation.