Practices and Perceptions of Community Health Centres Professionals Toward Evaluation: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Background and Objective: Evaluation plays a critical role in improving the quality and efficiency of services in multidisciplinary primary care organizations, such as community health centers. Despite growing interest in developing tailored evaluation theories for multidisciplinary primary care non-profit organizations, little is known about how evaluation is practiced and perceived by professionals in community health centers. This paper explores both evaluation practices and professionals' perspectives in Belgian community health centers. Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 21 professionals from 12 Belgian community health centers. Results: The results highlight the complementarity of formal and informal evaluation practices in understanding how evaluation is conducted and used in community health centers. The results highlighted how conflicting considerations regarding relevance, utility, and feasibility that arise in formal evaluation practices lead community health centers to informal evaluation practices. Professionals perceive informal evaluation practices as more aligned with the values of community health centers. Conclusion: These results highlight the need to adopt a hybrid approach to evaluation, which combines formal and informal practices in a complementary rather than opposing manner. Drawing inspiration from care ethics embedded in informal practices could help reimagine formal evaluation practices in a more human-centered and context-sensitive way.