Contributions of Transports Engineering to the Organization and Functioning of the Mobile Emergency Service/ Brazil

Abstract

Background The present case study had as object of investigation the Mobile Emergency Service, in the Brazilian context, from the approaches of Transport Health and Engineering. The Mobile Emergency Service was introduced in Brazil in 1996 inspired by the French model. In addition to ambulances, services are provided by motorcycles and even bicycles. The last one offered only in one of the units of the federation in less serious situation. It is inserted in the Unified Health System, which guides Brazilian public health. It should be pointed out that in order to understand the object of the study, an initial approximation was sought with the guidelines that guide the Brazilian health system due to its peculiarities. Objective of the study is to analyze the organization and operation of Mobile Emergency Service, seeking to identify the possibilities of contributions of Transport Engineering for the optimization of said service. Methods The study was based on documentary research from secondary sources in the form of institutional documents offered on official sites or made available for the study. Results The potential of Transport Engineering's contribution was identified in the form of a proposal to estimate the useful life of the vehicular units that enable the operation of the Mobile Emergency Service. Considering the endogenous and exogenous elements to the Mobile Emergency Service, four important axes are identified in the determination of the useful life of vehicular units. Health: indicators and social determinants of health, management and working conditions of drivers of vehicular units; Transport: elements pertinent to the geoprocessing and maintenance of vehicular units; Legislation: Unified Health System guidelines; Socio-economic-profiles and sanitary and epidemiological reality of the population. Conclusions The use of different approaches and techniques is necessary to determine the useful life of a vehicle that makes up the Mobile Emergency Service infrastructure. The contribution of this study is to signal the potentialities of a model to measure the useful life of vehicular units from the contributions of two areas of knowledge in an integrated way. It is intended in the future the application of the proposal and the verification of its results considering the optimization of said services and public resources.