The present study consists of a qualitative evaluation of user satisfaction in the areas covered by the Family Health Program, which are located within five municipalities of Salvador (Bahia, Brazil). During the evaluation, the following dimensions were taken into account: cognitive, relational, organizational and professional; the family health teams' point of view was also considered. Owing to criticism directed in the literature towards the methodological limitations of studies undertaking to evaluate user satisfaction, in particular biases linked to social expectations or to the reduction of the subjective process of evaluation through yes/no-type answers to sets of closed questions, we favored in this case methodological strategies that bear the hallmark of ethnography. Through the focal groups technique, the users have been able to express their perception of the program and of the services offered by the teams while they were disclosing their needs and the satisfactions they expected from them.
Ethnography; User satisfaction; Health programs
