Well-received patients and protocols mark the best public hospitals in the country

Managers of public hospitals that serve 100% through the SUS, listed as the best in a national ranking released in early November, point out as preponderant factors for a good performance the search for a more humanized service and the maintenance of accreditation seals, which attest to the management of the units.

For Maurício Perroud, superintendent of the State Hospital of Sumaré, in the interior of São Paulo, the leader of the ranking, which was elaborated by Ibross (Brazilian Institute of Social Health Organizations), the first impression has a significant weight for the patient, and that is worked within the unit.

“Usually there is a lot of bad talk about public health, but when the patient arrives at the public hospital and is welcomed by someone smiling, the place is clean, maintained, with adequate equipment, this has a positive impact”, he says.

Sumaré Hospital is managed by Unicamp and has around 1,300 employees. The care is referenced urgency, the patient is seen in another less complex unit and referred there.

In the outpatient clinic, where elective surgical cases enter, there are an average of 5,000 consultations per month, 700 of which are new patients. There are, on average, one thousand hospitalizations per month and 180 deliveries.

“Approximately 45% of our physicians have been with the company for more than 14 years. This brings stability to the process, people who know how the hospital works remain,” says Perroud.

The superintendent also highlights the fact that the unit functions as a teaching hospital, receiving physicians trained by Unicamp, as a positive point. “We manage to train those who are arriving, train them over time. This maintains the hospital’s culture.”

In second place in the ranking, Hospital Geral Dr. Waldemar Alcântara, from Fortaleza, and the General Hospital of Itapecerica da Serra, from Greater São Paulo. Both are administered by OSSs (Social Health Organization).

“The accreditations help us a lot in the sense of improving the care process and even basic things in patient admission. The hospital’s DNA has always had the concern of treating the patient well, with quality and safety”, says Denys Briand, general director from the Ceará hospital.

Fortaleza Hospital is managed by ISGH (Institute of Health and Hospital Management). It has 1,200 employees and has capacity for 323 hospitalizations, 53 of which in the ICU. According to Briand, the pandemic was a great lesson for the unit.

“In our hospital, the issue of working with a protocol was reinforced. Attendance, intubation, the use of antibiotics, transfer to the ICU. We had support doctors alongside the doctors who were working”, says Briand.

“It was a dramatic moment, but this matured our sense of humanization. It perfected tools that we were still in their infancy, such as digital media, contact between patients and family members over the internet. These were things that we advanced a lot”, completes the director.

The ranking was created by Ibross in partnership with PAHO (Pan-American Health Organization), Instituto Ética Saúde and ONA (National Accreditation Organization). 136 public hospitals were evaluated and 40 of them were highlighted for the ranking, 16 of which in the state of São Paulo.

In addition to the user evaluation, which was done through scores on the Google Business platform, the organization also took into account the institution’s certification time and an efficiency calculation, this one done in partnership with UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais ).

According to Renilson Rehem, general secretary of Ibross, a new ranking will be carried out every two years. He understands that the initiative makes it possible to show another image of the public health service.

“We are not talking about luxurious, five-star hospitals. We are talking about hospitals that work well, that have quality, that guarantee patient safety”, he says.

Gonzalo Vecina Neto, sanitary doctor and professor at the Faculty of Public Health at USP, understands that an evaluation ranking brings an important element in the discussion about public health services.

“We are discussing this issue of privatization a lot. If you take a state hospital and give it to the private sector to manage, it will remain state-owned, but it will be managed by a private company. Society has to be able to assess whether this is positive or negative” , says Vecina.

“If the institution managing these hospitals is a good institution, committed and transparent, it will manage to provide a service that will deliver what society expects it to deliver. On the other hand, if it is an institution that is there to make money, it it’s going to make a mess and eventually it will be able to divert public money from health.”

The 40 hospitals in the ranking

Source: Ibross ( Brazilian Institute of Social Health Organizations )