Teamwork among members of the health care teams is integral in the delivery of quality health care. Being highly advocated in settings such as primary health care, studies establishing the relationship between teamwork and quality of care are indeed necessary. The purpose of this study is to determine the extent and relationship of teamwork quality as perceived by primary health care team (PHCT) members and quality of care as perceived by clients. This descriptive-correlational study made use of two-stage cluster sampling method to select the 22 health centers of Manila wherein 195 PHCT members and 300 clients were purposively selected. Translated short version of Teamwork Quality Survey and Health Center Assessment Questionnaire were also utilized in data gathering while descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used for data analysis.

Results revealed a high perception of teamwork quality (mean=4.35) and quality of care (mean=4.23) among respective subjects. However, a significant negative relationship was found to exist between teamwork quality and quality of care (r= 0.129 p=0.032), indicating that high perception of teamwork is related to low quality of care as perceived by clients and vice versa. Nursing leaders and managers need not only rely on the quality of interaction within teams but also reevaluate task processes and other structures of care influencing patient outcome for quality improvement in primary health care.