Proyecto Municipios Centinela: evaluación del Sistema General de Seguridad Social en Salud. Colombia, 1955-1998

The Sentinel Municipality Project, which has been coordinated for the Health Ministry through the Municipality System of Health Program and has been financed with credit resources from the Interamerican Development Bank, is a specific component of the evaluation plan of the reform. Such project pretends to give a guide for making a flexible and efficient information system to get answers in the short and medium time to the information needs for taking thedecisions in different development sectors. The present research pretends a fast evaluation of the results of the Health and Social Security General System from 1995 to 1998, in specific locations with similar characteristics to the group of Colombian municipalities classified between levels 5 and 6, and to review the socioeconomic, geographical, demographic and institutional conditions of each locality including social margination grade. The study used theMunicipalities Observatories Methodology with a previous selection of the municipalities considered sentinels, and it also articulated the methodology of logic frame which included factor analysis. This process was enriched with support of qualitative research method. The study was simultaneously made in 14,municipalities of the country, located in these departments: Antioquia, Atlántico, Boyacá, Caldas, Cauca, Cundinamarca, Huila, Nariño, and Sucre. This article shows the methodology and results profits in 5 of the 14 municipalities of the study: Betulia and Yolombó of Antioquia Department, Toluviejo of Sucre Department, and Piojó and Ponedera, of Atlántico Department. Those municipalities were included in accordance between the Executive Secretary of the Andrés Bello, agreement SECAB, and the National School of Public Health of Antioquia University.