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The development of methodologies to better get information from health services in Brazil

Keywords: Survey methodology, Health services, Health facilities, Financial information

The Survey of Medical Care (AMS) is a census of health facilities conduced by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) since 1975, and its latest issue was in 2009. The aim is to describe the different methods used in AMS to collect the information. Looking to respond for intense changes that the health facilities have suffered over the past 30 years, AMS sought to adapt its questionnaires and research methodology to meet the information needs of the health sector. In 2009 AMS used three different models for the structural survey questionnaire and a financial questionnaire to a sample of private establishments. Through personal interview, establishments were identified as the object of research and then the type of questionnaire and filling forms (paper or Web) were selected. AMS 2009 identified 97,460 establishments in activity, 45,402 private ones. Over 8,000 were selected and was obtained a financial questionnaire response rate of more than 80%. To achieve this coverage AMS lay hold of telephone survey. This experience points to progress in the evaluation of the health sector and its finances by the use of complementary methodologies.