Investigación-Acción Participativa sobre percepciones, preocupaciones y necesidades de los profesionales de salud en una central de emergencias de Argentina: Investigación-Acción Participativa en personal de salud / Participatory Action Research on perceptions, concerns and needs of healthcare professionals in an emergency department in Argentina

Objetivo: Explorar las percepciones, preocupaciones y necesidades del personal de salud en una Central de Emergencias de Adultos (CEA) de Argentina. Métodos: Investigación o acción participativa, coordinada y ejecutada por el propio personal de la CEA, que incluyó médicos/as, personal de enfermería y administrativo/as para participar activamente en la recolección de información y en el análisis. Se utilizaron metodologías mixtas: análisis documental de quejas y reclamaciones escritas por parte de los pacientes, 10 entrevistas individuales y 2 grupos focales reflexivos con 10 integrantes del personal de salud (de diferente cargo y antigüedad, y residentes en formación). Resultados: Los tópicos emergentes fueron factores laborales que inducen al error y atentan contra el encuentro clínico centrado en la persona: la sobrecarga y la falta de tiempo, la sobreutilización de recursos por medicina defensiva y la tecnología que reemplaza el contacto físico. El personal de salud manifestó episodios de agresiones de pacientes o sus familiares, cuando las largas esperas y las insuficiencias estructurales (como falta de camas, saturación de sala de espera, incomodidad) atentan contra la paciencia y la tolerancia. A partir de esta reflexión se generaron mejoras en diversas áreas de la CEA.Conclusiones: La identificación de las problemáticas realizadas por los propios actores de la CEA resultó un método pertinente para generar un proceso de cambio de gestión colectiva, promover la reflexión y concientizar, permitir identificar áreas de mejora, diseñar estrategias y propuestas concretas (AU)

Introduction: To explore perceptions, concerns and needs of healthcare professionals in an emergency department (ED) from Argentina.Methods: Participatory action research, coordinated and carried out by ED healthcare professionals, which included physicians, nurses and administrative staff who actively en-gaged in both data collection and analysis. Mixed methodologies were used: documentary analysis of complaints and written claims by patients, 10 individual interviews, and two reflective focus groups of 10 healthcare professionals (who differed in occupation, seniority and experience, including residents in training).Results: The topics that emerged were work factors that lead to errors and threaten pa-tient-centered clinical encounters: work overload and lack of time, the overuse of resources for defensive medicine purposes and technology that replaces physical contact. Healthcare professionals reported episodes of aggression by patients or their families, when long waits and structural insufficiencies (such as lack of beds, saturation of the waiting room, discom-fort) threaten patience and tolerance. From these insights, improvements were generated in various areas of the ED.Conclusions: The identification of problems by the ED stakeholders l was a relevant ap-proach that led to a process of collective management change, promoted reflection and raised awareness, allowing the identification of areas for improvement, design strategies and concrete feasible proposals (AU)

Healthcare Information Systems to Assess Influenza Outbreaks: An analysis of the 2009 H1N1 Epidemic in Buenos Aires.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a private HIS could have detected the influenza epidemic outbreaks earlier through changes in morbidity and mortality patterns. METHODS: Data Source included a health information system (HIS) from an academic tertiary health care center integrating administrative and clinical applications. It used a local interface terminology server which provides support through data autocoding of clinical documentation. Specific data subsets were created to compare the burden of influenza during the epidemiological week (EW) 21 to 26 for years 2007 to 2009 among 150,000 Health Maintenance Organization members in Argentina. The threshold for identifying an epidemic was considered met when the weekly influenza-like illness (ILI) rate exceeded 200 per 100,000 visits. Case fatality rates and mortality rates of severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) from 2007 to 2009 were retrospectively compared. Case fatality rates and mortality rates for A/H1N1 influenza 2009 also were estimated. RESULTS: The HIS detected the outbreak in EW 23 while the government Ministry of Health (MoH) gave a national epidemic alert during EW 25. The number of visits for ILI increased more than fourfold when comparing 2009 to the period 2007-2008. The SARI mortality rate in 2009 was higher than in 2008 (RR 2.8; 95%CI 1.18-6.63) and similar to that of 2007 (RR 1.05; 95%CI 0.56-1.49). 2009 was the first year with mortalities younger than 65 years attributable to SARI. The estimated A/H1N1 case fatality rate for SARI was 6.2% (95%CI 2.5 to 15.5) and A/H1N1 mortality rate was 6 per 100,000 (95%CI 0 to 11.6). CONCLUSION: Our HIS detected the outbreak two weeks before than the MoH gave a national alert. The information system was useful in assessing morbidity and mortality during the 2009 influenza epidemic H1N1 outbreak suggesting that with a private-public integration a more real-time outbreak and disease surveillance system could be implemented.