[Critical view and argumentation on chronic care programs in Primary and Community Care].

Abstract

The detailed analysis of the chronic care plans developed by the Spanish regional health services show a surprising level of uniformity in their design and deployment, despite differences between these services. The reviews about theoretical models that support it and tools they develop does not provide conclusive evidence to support the chronic care models achieve better results than another alternatives of care. Although the whole Spanish chronic care plans includes assessment proposals no rigorous studies on their effect have been published to date. Given that, on the contrary, there is a strong and repeated evidence that health systems with Primary Care high performance obtains better outcomes, it is necessary to ask about the need to look for alternative models, when the proposed goals could be reached strengthen Primary Care.