Complex systems design based on actual system functioning: Coping with variability in a national water ambulances service.

BACKGROUND: In Brazil, the Mobile Emergency Medical Service (SAMU) is a model of mobile assistance and care for emergencies standardized throughout the country. The water ambulance service within the SAMU operates in riverside and coastal areas, and faces challenges and peculiarities that increase the complexity of providing a high-quality and safe emergency care service. OBJECTIVE: To develop organizational design guidelines aiming to improve resilient performance of complex systems, with an application to riverine and coastal mobile emergency care in Brazil. METHODS: Data collection followed an ethnographic approach. Fieldwork was carried in a participatory way, based on worksite technical description, semi-structured interviews with managers and emergency care teams' professionals, and work observation whenever possible. Five regional SAMU coordinations were visited. Data coding employed content analysis and grouped data excerpts according to concepts of capacity and demand. Interfaces were identified between demand and capacity elements and adaptations led by system agents, orienting the proposal of guidelines for organizational design as solutions to face the verified gaps. RESULTS: Design guidelines produced spanned composition and training of both intervention teams and dispatch central teams, uniforms and personal protective equipment (PPE), decentralized water bases, means of communication, intervention protocols, biosafety and inter-sector actions. CONCLUSION: The approach enabled framing and assessment of specific design elements according to resilience engineering concepts, which in turn showed paths for improving the service and reconciling work-as-imagined and actual system functioning.

Community health workers' non-technical skills for delivering primary healthcare in low-income areas.

BACKGROUND: To overcome the poor conditions of low-income areas in developing countries like Brazil, Community Health Workers (CHWs) are required to exceed the regular set of formal skills they are used to employ. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we aim at identifying the non-technical skills CHWs must develop to cope with the extraordinary situations that occur in vulnerable communities. METHODS: 41 CHWs based in two primary healthcare clinics in Brazil underwent two rounds of in-depth interviews. The analysis was carried out using the Analytical Hierarchy Process, resulting in the prioritization of social skills according to their calculated importance to house calls. RESULTS: Among the ten higher-scored skills, we find communication and advocacy skills being of high importance. Civility was found to be the most important attribute, confirming that community action relies strongly on the relationship between health professionals and the community. CONCLUSION: The results of our study contribute primarily to the improvement of community-based primary care programs as it helps to identify major skills required for community action.

On the brink of disruption: Applying Resilience Engineering to anticipate system performance under crisis.

As COVID-19 spread across Brazil, it quickly reached remote regions including Amazon's ultra-peripheral locations where patient transportation through rivers is added to the list of obstacles to overcome. This article analyses the pandemic's effects in the access of riverine communities to the prehospital emergency healthcare system in the Brazilian Upper Amazon River region. To do so, we present two studies that by using a Resilience Engineering approach aimed to predict the functioning of the Brazilian Mobile Emergency Medical Service (SAMU) for riverside and coastal areas during the COVID-19 pandemic, based on the normal system functioning. Study I, carried out before the pandemic, applied ethnographic methods for data collection and the Functional Resonance Analysis Method - FRAM for data analysis in order to develop a model of the mobile emergency care in the region during typical conditions of operation. Study II then estimated how changes in variability dynamics would alter system functioning during the pandemic, arriving at three trends that could lead the service to collapse. Finally, the accuracy of predictions is discussed after the pandemic first peaked in the region. Findings reveal that relatively small changes in variability dynamics can deliver strong implications to operating care and safety of expeditions aboard water ambulances. Also, important elements that add to the resilient capabilities of the system are extra-organizational, and thus during the pandemic safety became jeopardized as informal support networks grew fragile. Using FRAM for modelling regular operation enabled prospective scenario analysis that accurately predicted disruptions in providing emergency care to riverine population.

Desempenho resiliente da longitudinalidade da atenção primária durante a pandemia da Covid-19: um estudo transversal em territórios vulneráveis do município do Rio de Janeiro / Resilient performance of primary care longitudinality during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study in vulnerable territories in the city of Rio de Janeiro

RESUMO O estudo avaliou o desempenho resiliente quanto à continuidade da atenção e ao cuidado longitudinal, às Doenças Crônicas Não Transmissíveis (hipertensão arterial sistêmica e Diabetes Mellitus) pelas unidades de atenção básica à saúde de uma região vulnerável do município do Rio de Janeiro, durante a pandemia da Covid-19. Trata-se de um estudo transversal, de métodos mistos, de abordagem quantitativa e qualitativa. Apesar de a interrupção total ou parcial potencialmente expor os usuários a complicações agudas e crônicas, o estudo aponta que as estratégias desenvolvidas pelo primeiro nível de atenção das unidades básicas de saúde do município foram efetivas para a redução de internações por essas enfermidades, demonstrando um desempenho resiliente.

ABSTRACT The study evaluated the resilient performance in terms of continuity of care and longitudinal care for Noncommunicable Chronic Diseases (systemic arterial hypertension and Diabetes Mellitus) by primary health care units in a vulnerable region of the city of Rio de Janeiro, during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a cross-sectional mixed methods study, with a quantitative and qualitative approach. Despite the total or partial interruption potentially exposing users to acute and chronic complications, the study points out that the strategies developed by the first level of care of the basic health units in the municipality were effective in reducing hospitalizations for those diseases, demonstrating a resilient performance.

Assessing community health workers' conditions for delivering care to patients in low-income communities.

In this paper we study the working conditions of Community Health Workers in performing house calls within low-income, violent communities in order to understand the challenges in delivering primary care in developing countries. We conducted field studies in two primary healthcare clinics and telephone surveys for 5 months in 2017 within systematic sample of 1690 community health workers based on clinics distributed along the health regions of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A number of 759 interviews were completed, approximately 50% of the sample, 86% men and 14% women. Most participants are 30-39 years old (35%), followed by 27% of 40-49 years old participants. Results show that exposure to territorial violence and environmental or health-related diseases significantly affects CHWs. Moreover, CHWs have to develop a significant set of skills to cope with aspects of the territory, and those skills are not present in their training. As community health workers work on the sharp end of the healthcare system, responsible for outreaching, community education, counseling, and social support, our study presents contributions to government and management levels on working conditions inside communities, constraints in assistance, and difficulties in implementing primary care policies.

Effects of Urban Violence on Primary Healthcare: The Challenges of Community Health Workers in Performing House Calls in Dangerous Areas.

Community health workers in developing countries usually perform house calls in degraded and violent territories. Thus, in this paper we study the effects of urban violence in the performance of CHWs in poorly developed territories, in order to understand the challenges of delivering care to dangerous communities in developing countries. We conducted telephone surveys for 5 months in 2017, within a systematic sample of 2.000 CHWs based on clinics distributed along the health regions of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We completed 766 interviews, approximately 40% of the sample, 86% man and 14% women. Most participants are 30 to 39 years old (35%), followed by 27% of 40 to 49 years old participants. As CHWs work on the sharp end of the healthcare system, responsible for outreaching, community education, counseling, and social support, our study presents contributions to government and management levels on working conditions inside communities, constraints in assistance, and difficulties in implementing primary care policies.

Um modelo estratégico de gestão baseado em competência: estudo de caso do curso de especialização em gestão hospitalar da Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública / Strategic model of competency-based management: a case study of the specialization course in hospital management from the National School of Public Health

Realizar, a partir de uma análise quali-quantitativa de competências um diagnóstico do curso lato sensu de gestão hospitalar da ENSP, identificando os GAPs de competência curricular e induzindo a um modelo de gestão. Essa avaliação deverá permitir um replanejamento do respectivo curso, com base em gestão por competência, o que se entende como uma inovação organizacional de processo, na gestão do ensino da ENSP.