A versatile approach to health system evaluation

Although problems in the relationships between different levels of health care systems in developing countries have a significant influence on efficiency, they have not been clearly defined. In the present article a simple method is described for assessing certain aspects of these problems. It is shown that data collected in a hospital can be used not only to highlight inadequate management of patients at the community level, but also to identify deficiencies at the community/hospital interface. The method is inexpensive and easy to understand, and could easily be adapted for every interface in a system and for all stages of health service development.