Child health services in Colombia: Developing preventive health care strategies in university-Level hospitals

Abstract

This report is based on a study of the history, extent, and impact of preventive health care practices for children in Colombia. Its purpose was to provide Colombia university-level hospitals with a preventive medicine strategy for improving their child health services. Information was collected in Colombia with the assistance of the Children's Hospital (Lorencita Villegas de Santos) and the Ministry of Health. Visits were made to hospitals and health centres throughout Colombia, and health officials, doctors, professional staff, and parents were interviewed in the cities and surrounding rural areas of Bogota, Cali and Medellin. The medical problems of childhood in Colombia were characterized and the role of the medical profession in the design and implementation of health policies in Colombia was investigated. A review was conducted of relevant major field projects in Colombia and the role of the university-level hospital was examined. The study brought to light several concepts and components of preventive medicine which could be adopted at all university-level hospitals; specific attention, however, was given to the Children's Hospital (Lorencita Villegas de Santos) in Bogota. The extreme diversity of population groups in Colombia makes generalizations about the effectiveness of methods difficult. Thus, the emphasis of the proposed model is on the design of a possible approach, appropriate to one major medical institution, not on methods which are applicable to all other institutions. The model suggests that selected health themes, together with an integration of preventive and curative medicine, be developed through research, teaching, and service intervention, involving modification of the medical curriculum to include student training assignments with target communities.