Quality of prehospital fixed components of the Brazilian Emergency and Urgent Care Network: a study based on data from PMAQ-AB and PNASS

Abstract

The organization and management of integrated health systems is complex and challenging. As a strategy to improve the quality and access to urgent services, the Brazilian Ministry of Health implemented the Emergency and Urgent Care Network (RUE), comprised of care facilities with different technological levels. Assess the quality of prehospital fixed components of the RUE in health macroregions. A cross-sectional study using data from the Brazilian National Health Services Evaluation Program (PNASS) and the Brazilian National Program for Improvement of Access and Quality of Basic Care (PMAQ-AB) was carried out. A typology was built for the quality of the emergency care units (UPAs) and the first visit by health macroregion, correlating it with socioeconomic variables. A cluster analysis was performed. In total, 280 UPAs, 21,182 basic health units (UBSs), and 27,335 family health teams from 74 health macroregions were evaluated. The general indicator of the quality of the components presented an average of 0.687 (reference score: 1.00). UPA quality (0.61) was positively influenced by the indicators Pharmacy support and Immediate emergency and urgent care, with worse results in Contract management, Planning and organization, and Organizational model. In primary healthcare (PHC) quality (0.78), the dimensions with better evaluations were Articulation with the network, Reception and procedures, unlike Exams and medications. Health macroregions were allocated to three clusters. Cluster 3 obtained a much higher overall average score (0.81) than the others (0.64 and 0.63). A lower quality of PHC was observed in Cluster 1, which showed the highest level of social vulnerability.