Overview

Why Primary Healthcare?

Helpful Resources
	Principles of Primary Healthcare

Poor lifestyle choices are resulting in swiftly increasing rates of chronic disease, disability, and behavioral health concerns the world over. In developed and developing countries alike, more and more deaths are attributed to non-communicable diseases, including hypertension, diabetes, and cancer, as well as largely preventable causes such as accidental injuries or poisoning. Regular check ups, routine and inexpensive screening tests, and patient education—all the hallmarks of high-quality primary care—can go a long way toward helping manage or even avoid many of these leading causes of mortality and morbidity.

By establishing a PHC Center, you can step forward and help reverse negative health trends and, in turn, improve the overall health status of your community, your region, and even your nation.

AIHA supported an extensive Primary Healthcare (PHC) Initiative beginning in 1998. Through a network of more than 30 primary healthcare partnerships in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, AIHA has helped establish some 70 primary healthcare, family medicine, and women’s wellness centers that provide comprehensive, high-quality clinical care to thousands of people each year.

The successful PHC Centers AIHA helped establish can serve as inspiration to individuals looking to improve primary care services in their own community and provide concrete models that can be easily adapted and replicated. These centers clearly demonstrate that change and improvement in healthcare systems is not only possible, but can be efficient and effective as well.

Contents of the Toolkit

This toolkit has been designed to take advantage of the wealth of tools and resources AIHA has collected through the work of its Primary Healthcare Initiative by sharing these resources with others, particularly those in developing regions, who can benefit from this information.

In addition to providing step-by-step models to follow, relevant news articles, and proven techniques, this toolkit also includes AIHA’s comprehensive Clinical Practice Guidelines Manual, designed specifically for use within primary healthcare programs, including Primary Healthcare Centers.

Together, these resources can provide an excellent framework for you to use when establishing your own Primary Healthcare Center—to learn from, replicate and implement.

How to Use This Toolkit

This toolkit has been designed to help you plan and set up a Primary Healthcare Center in your community by following the effective models and methods we have established together with our partners. We recommend you follow the order of the topics presented below, and read through the entire toolkit before beginning to implement any of the methods or models provided.

1. Assessing Your Needs
2. Developing the Infrastructure
3. Developing Clinical Practice Guidelines
4. Establishing Community Outreach and Education Programs
5. Measuring and Improving Results

• Resource Library (forms and tools, reports, etc.)
• Read about AIHA PHC Centers in various countries