Impact of the primary care residents on the productivity of the ambulatory health centres in Portugal: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: The presence of residents in Primary Care health centres may influence their operational results. AIM: To examine the relationship between the presence of residents and the results of the evaluation in Portuguese Primary Care Health Centres. METHODS: We conduct a cross-sectional study, comparing the results achieved by the mainland Portuguese Primary Care Health Centres measured by the Global Performance Index (Índice de desempenho global – IDG) by the presence of General & Family Medicine residents in training. Analysis took into consideration the distribution by region and typology of the health centres. RESULTS: We evaluated 906 units, 55.7% involved in the training of General & Family Medicine residence. The presence of residents was associated with higher Global Performance Index values (77.3 vs 57.6; p < 0.001). The higher difference was found in the less developed Personalized Health Care Units and in the region of Lisbon and Tagus Valley. CONCLUSION: The presence of residents in training is a contributing factor in the productivity of the Primary Health Care facilities. It may model the asymmetry in the performance of Portuguese Health Centres.