O apoio institucional na atenção básica: um estudo de caso

Abstract

This study has its focus on the Institutional Support, understand as a management tool for revisions in the work processes of Primary Health Care. Having in mind the complexity of work processes as well as the need for change in the making of health, a demand for new technologies and for management methodologies is presented, aiming at the qualification of such processes. The Institutional Support is a proposal of methodology for such qualification. The research was carried out with the intent of being informed of the actions of the Institutional Support as an organizational tool for the change in the primary health care model as well as for the qualification of work processes in health. For such, we utilized the methodology of an Exploratory Case Study with a qualitative approach, performed with the supporters and the professionals at Secretaria Municipal de Saúde de Sapucaia do Sul, since it was one of the first municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul to use such a methodology. For the data collection, we interviewed the manager who had implemented the Institutional Support and the current manager of the Primary Health Care department. In addition, there were focus group discussions with ten professionals in Primary Health Care as well as with eight institutional supporters of the municipality. The results of the research point out to the role of the Supporter, who emerges as a possibility for the articulation and for the mediation among the different actors in the health system. Moreover, it has been identified that such role presents its limits, such as the lack of governability and the indefinition as to the boundaries of its attribution. Nonetheless, such limits have also been perceived as the very possibilities for the democratization of management through co-management. Hence, the Institutional Support amounts to an extremely feasible management methodology and features manifold possibilities. Notwithstanding, the research work points out the need for new studies, since recognizing the characteristics of such role in a more concrete way could, in fact, be a course for the qualification of the Unified Health System.