The AcolheSUS Project in Primary Health Care in Brazil's Federal District

The recent change in model of primary health care introduced for the Family Health Strategy, to one centred on the user and territorialisation, provided the ideal opportunity to implement the AcolheSUS Project in a Basic Health Unit (UBS) of the Central Region of Brasília, in Brazil's Federal District. The UBS team conducted a situational diagnosis of the unit and situational strategic planning with a view to reorganising the service to address the problems identified, focusing on the work processes. With introduction of AcolheSUS, the number of individual user registrations performed by the teams increased from 135 to 3525, the number of nursing visits increased by 193.7% and the number of procedures performed by nurses increased by 121.2%. During changeover to the new care model, 71% of residents in the catchment area attended the basic health unit; after introduction of AcolheSUS, the percentage reached 90.5%. The monthly average of users received and classified was 1099.8. The joint construction of solid protocols and adjustments to work processes contributed to improving service delivery and afforded users greater access to the health care unit.