Analysis of accomplishment of the opportunity guarantee for six Auge pathologies at an outpatient rural practice

Abstract

The Auge regime is a comprehensive health system that considers Universal Access and Explicit

Guarantees with regard to the care of priority health issues. Among these, the Opportunity Guarantee establishes maximum deadlines for the diagnosis and treatment of 56 pathologies. The purpose is to assess the accomplishment of the Opportunity Guarantee for six pathologies included in the Auge regime, at an outpatient rural practice in Chile, between May 2006 and March 2008.

A total of 209 consultation referrals issued between May 2006 and March 2008 for 6 pathologies

were assessed: cholelithiasis, gastric cancer, premature labor, refractive pathologies, depression and hip joint arthrosis. Accomplishment of the Opportunity Guarantee was defi ned using May 30 2008 as cutoff date.

The percentage of accomplishment of the Opportunity Guarantee was 76.92% for premature labor; 75.8% for cholelithiasis; 48.21% for refractive pathologies; 36.3% for gastric cancer; 33.3% for hip arthrosis and 21.82% for depression.

In the present work the percentage of accomplishment of the opportunity guarantee was below 80% for each of the pathologies assessed, with a delay in compliance with the deadlines set by the Auge Act affecting 50.23% of the cases (105 of 209 patients).