Health Policy 48 (1999) 107–117 An analysis of the effectiveness of Spanish primary health care teams Salome ´ Gon ˜i* Department of Business Administration, Public Uniersity of Naarra, Campus de Arrosadı ´a s /n 31006 Pamplona, Naarra, Spain Received 27 November 1998; accepted 8 May 1999 Abstract One of the main objectives of the managers of public health systems in most developed countries is the modernisation of public services through managerial reforms as a way of resolving the traditional inefficiency of this sector. The objective of this article is to observe how the introduction of one tool traditionally used in the private sector, the organisation of work through teams, can contribute to improved performance in public health services. The study was conducted in the primary health care teams of Navarre, an autonomous region of Spain, where a new model of primary health care, based on teamwork was implanted. We analyse the relationship between team characteristics, team members’ individual features and team performance from a stakeholder approach. We can conclude that teams are a form of organisational design useful for improving performance in primary health care because insofar as they function properly, they achieve greater degrees of job satisfaction for the employees, greater perceived quality by the users and greater efficiency for the Administra- tion. © 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Teams; Primary health care; Organisational performance; Stakeholder www.elsevier.com/locate/healthpol 1. Introduction The General Health Act, passed in Spain in 1986, produced, among other reforms, a new model for Primary Health Care based on the principles arising from the Alma-Ata Conference, organised by the World Health Organisation and the * Tel.: +34-948-169708; fax: +34-948-169404. E-mail address: salomeg@upna.es (S. Gon ˜i) 0168-8510/99/$ - see front matter © 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. PII:S0168-8510(99)00036-6