Barriers and facilitators in the implementation of the primary health care strategy in Palmira, Colombia

Abstract

Objective To know the barriers and facilitators for the continuity in the implementation of the Primary Health Care strategy in Palmira. Methods The Primary Health Care (PHC) experience was taken from the territorial health entity of the Municipality of Palmira, Colombia, which is a territory approximately with 283,431 habitants. The qualitative methodological approach was used through thematic content analysis. The target population was the key informants, individuals with a potentially significant role in the formulation and development of the PHC strategy, chosen with a non-probabilistic approach for convenience. The information was obtained from primary and secondary sources and the qualitative analysis computer software Atlas Ti V7 was used as a support tool for data management. Results The analysis of barriers and facilitators for the continuity of the PHC strategy, identified the main characteristics of the strategy and a series of recurring themes when analyzing the possible barriers and facilitators in the process components, actors, con-tent, and context. Each of these themes presented different behaviors according to the perception of the participants, where some themes were perceived as facilitators, barriers, or both. Conclusion When comparing barriers and facilitators, it was found that globally the barriers are greater than facilitators, a behavior reflected in the theory since it indicates that the vulnerable population presents a greater number of barriers compared to health services and the strategy of APS places special emphasis on this type of population.