Readiness of family practice clinics to reforms in universal health care

ABSTRACT

Background@#Primary care providers must evaluate their facilities and determine their capacity to comply with the requirements of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act.@*Objective@#This study describes the facility profiles of PAFP members in terms of the UHC requirements for licensing, certification and accreditation of health facilities.@*Methods@#A cross-sectional study was conducted in four cities using the PAFP UHC Readiness survey. The study population included active members of PAFP who voluntarily answered the survey during workshops held between January to February 2020@*Results@#A total of 195 family physicians participated. Most of them work in hospital facilities (49.40%), while others have solo practice (27.38%), or are in group practice (20.24%). Most (69.61%) of the facilities have PHIC accreditation and SEC or DTI registration (74.47%). The availability of structures, equipment and pharmacies vary across the cities. Only half of the facilities have information technologies for clinical records (54.36%) or management (59.49%). Similarly, there are facilities which lack human resource personnel and only 54.10% of the facilities are networked with other facilities. The facilities’ revenues are mostly from fee-for-service (60%) and the cost of payments widely vary among the areas. Most of the facilities are managed financially by the owner and the income of the facility is the main source of capital for investment@*Conclusion@#Family physicians have existing structures and systems in their facilities but improvements on information technologies and networking are needed. They should also ensure affordability of care to patients while ensuring sustainability of facility operations