[An evaluation of the prior appointment program in primary care by a user opinion survey]. / Evaluación del programa de cita previa en atención primaria a través de una encuesta de opinión de usuarios.

OBJECTIVE: To assess user-satisfaction on the introduction of an Appointments Scheme. DESIGN: Crossover and observational, with a random sample. SITE. 47?97 Health Centres and 72 Clinics in the Community of Valencia. PATIENTS AND OTHERS PARTICIPANTS: A random sample of 400 users. MAIN MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: A month after the introduction of the scheme, a survey was administered by staff of the centres themselves to a sample of users coming out from consulting rooms. The percentage of users who waited less than 15 minutes to see their doctor increased from 18% to 75.5% after the introduction of the Scheme. The average number of people in the waiting-rooms decreased from 61 to 14. 72.5% of users considered that the quality of health care received had improved. CONCLUSIONS: The users' evaluation of the programme is satisfactory. There was moreover a significant difference in favour of Health Centres as to fewer crowds in waiting-rooms, greater access to telephones, the evaluation of the quality of care and the average time of a consultation.