The Care System Assessment Model and its Operationalization

The care system assessment model is intended to help community planning bodies for HIV services conduct systematic evaluations of existing care systems, with an eye toward changing them to make services more accessible to people living with HIV (PLWH) from underserved minority communities. The model has four structural and three cultural/behavioral dimensions. The structural dimensions are system comprehensiveness, capacity, integration, and accessibility; the cultural/behavioral dimensions are service acceptability, technical competencies (of both providers and potential system users), and client health-seeking behaviors. This chapter describes the model's dimensions and ways to operationalize them through document reviews and other methods.