title: [Performance assessment of health services in Catalonia (Spain): evaluation of initial results of the Catalan healthcare service project].
abstract: Performance assessment of healthcare services is receiving greater attention due to increasing health care expenditures, greater expectations among the population, and the need to obtain results from the invested resources. Taking advantage of the existing experience of the Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona and the Consorci Sanitari de Barcelona, which compared the healthcare services of Barcelona and Montreal, a grant from the Agència d'Avaluació de Tecnologia i Recerca Mèdiques, and the health planning interest of the Departament de Salut, the performance assessment of the Catalan healthcare service project was started in Catalonia in 2005. This article aims to present the development of the project, to provide some examples that illustrate the kind of numerical and graphical information that could be obtained and the kind of analysis that could be performed, to provide possible explanations for the results shown, and to discuss some limitations and implications. Currently, the added value of this project is that it identifies the extent to which the healthcare system is achieving its objectives, establishes a set of homogeneous indicators that could be used in the future, and is a key tool in the development of the Central de Resultats del Departament de Salut de la Generalitat de Catalunya.
authors.affiliation: Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. agarcia@aspb.cat
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: García-Altés
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dalmau-Bueno
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Colls
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mendivil
authors.forename: Josep
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Benet
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mompart
authors.forename: Elvira
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Torné
authors.forename: Corinne
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zara
authors.forename: Carme
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Borrell
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Brugulat
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Guarga
mesh_terms: D006296:Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D013030:Spain