A practical tool for community-oriented primary care community diagnosis using a personal computer.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Community-oriented primary care (COPC) is considered an attractive concept by many but has had limited implementation due to a lack of practical methodology. An important step in COPC is assessment of a community's health status, using health indicators as one means of assessment. Currently, there is no easy way to combine these indicators and examine their distribution over a community. This study analyzed a process for doing that by using a personal computer.

METHODS

For the community studied, all available community-based health indicators were identified. A process for combining these indicators, using commonly available database and spreadsheet software, was developed and analyzed for cost, clinical utility, and problems encountered.

RESULTS

Problems were encountered with collecting and combining some data, but a clinically useful tool was produced. Costs, including purchase of all software (with mapping software), were $1,500-$2,000.

CONCLUSIONS

With efforts to reduce the initial costs, this is a practical and clinically useful tool for viewing the geographic distribution of community health indicators. Such practical methodology is essential for COPC development.