OBJECTIVES: The progressive explosion of non-communicable diseases (NCD) and multimorbidity has challenged health systems in Chile and worldwide. The Centro de Innovación en Salud ANCORA UC implemented a new Multimorbidity Patient-Centered Care Model (MPCM) between 2017 and 2020. It was aimed to reorganize health services based on diagnosis towards new care focused on the person's needs with multimorbidity stratified according to their risk. The study aimed to evaluate the implementation of core elements of MPCM in its pilot phase in Chile from the perspective of high-risk patients.

METHODS: We conducted a survey study that considered the application of a 13 items-telephone questionnaire. Of them, ten were Likert scale types with scores from 1 to 7, and the last three were open-ended questions. 231 high-risk patients who received care through MPCM at primary care centers participated in the study. Data were encoded, consolidated, and analyzed with the SPSS software. We performed descriptive and analytic statistics techniques to asses different variables and their potential associations.

RESULTS: The overall score was 5.84 (range: 1 to 7), with a SD of 1.25. Questions with the best scores reflected the personalized care and the primary care team. The lowest was the one regarding the continuity of care between primary nurses and inpatient care at the hospital. There was a difference in patient outcomes depending on their health center. Regarding sociodemographic characteristics, age did not significantly affect the results.

CONCLUSIONS: The study reveals the perceptions of a complex multimorbidity intervention from the patient's perspective. It complements the impact on health services utilization evaluation that supports decision-makers currently scaling up a similar strategy in our country and could be taken from other countries dealing with NCD.