Análise da efetividade de um Serviço de Atenção Domiciliar pediátrico brasileiro

Abstract

Introduction: Technological advances in health care have provided better care conditions and increased survival of premature children, increasing the life expectancy of chronically ill children. Home Care Service (HCS) has emerged as an effective tool for the treatment of this child profile. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a HCS with regard to pediatric care. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed by medical records of a tertiary hospital in Minas Gerais/Brazil. Two groups were compared: 42 patients assisted by a HCS (home group) and 15 patients hospitalized with an indication for home care (hospital group). To analyze the effectiveness of HCS, we evaluated the number of readmissions, infection rate, number of procedures, and optimization of beds. Results: Hospital group presented 6.04 times more infections and was submitted to 6.43 times more procedures. Home group presented lower readmissions rates, with 41.66% of the children studied never were readmitted and 76.19% of those who needed readmissions did so after more than 30 days from hospital discharge. It was also verified that HCS provided on average 101.80 pediatric hospital beds in five years. Conclusion: HCS, in addition to being a family centered care, made possible to reduce the number of procedures, infections, and, consequently, public health expenditures, and these indices are suggestive of effectiveness.