Objective: To discover the recruitment and follow-up coverage of Prenatal Care in Parla Health Center, derivation causes and quality control of follow-up.
Design: Descriptive and retrospective study.
Patients: We obtained 445 newborns (from May 1991 to April 1992) in pediatric records of Health Center, and encountered 412 women records (93%).
Measurements and main results: We measured general practitioner coverage, obstetric derivation and causes, and audit of 23 quality markers selected. General practitioner diagnosed pregnancy in 142 cases (32%). Of them, 63 were derivated at the beginning, 19 at the following-up, and 60 cases (13.5% of total newborns known) were completed in primary care. In these, 19 of 23 quality markers were fulfilled over 80%.
Conclusions: We emphasized the poor capacity of primary care for recruiting pregnancies in the moment (most of them went straight to obstetric), and the excellent results of quality control markers. These situations can be as similar as many others Health Centers in urban areas. Coordination with Reference Obstetric Services is necessary as a strategy to increased the coverage of these programs.