Hospitalization for primary care sensitive conditions in municipalities with full local health management control in Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil

We assess the quality of care provided in the cities with full health system management, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, by means of the rate of hospitalizations for primary care sensitive conditions, between 1995 and 2005. The following were considered as hospitalizations for sensitive conditions: diabetes mellitus, heart failure, hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and immunopreventive diseases in individuals aged between 20 and 59 years. Findings reveal that, beginning in 2001, there has been a reduction in rates in almost all cities. Through the Poisson regression we didn't observe a lower rates after the full health system management. Among cities with full health system management, rates of hospitalizations for ambulatory care sensitive conditions increased as the population size decreased. Hospitalizations for ambulatory care sensitive conditions were found to be low-cost, easily-operated indicators and can produce knowledge about health systems, enabling their quality improvement.