Abstracts

INTRODUCTION

According to Viana (2011),¹⁰10. Viana ALA. As diferentes institucionalidades de política social no Brasil no período de 1995 a 2010. In: Viana ALA, LD Lima, organizadores. Regionalização e relações federativas na política de saúde no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro (RJ): Contra Capa; 2011. p.27-38. social and health policies in Brazil can be divided into three periods. The period of liberal institutionalism (1995-2002) is characterized by an emphasis on market deregulation and self-regulation with the creation of the National Regulatory Agency for Private Health Insurance and Plans (ANS) and of the Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA), in addition to the key strategy of decentralization with emphasis on primary health care. The transition phase (2003-2006), with positive results in both its balances of trade and payments, developed the emblematic program Bolsa Família, a direct money transfer from the state to people in poverty. The neodevelopmentalist institutionalism phase (2007-2010) is characterized by the emergence of the new middle class, which concentrates great purchasing power, and by regionalization in health, combined with the strong expansion of investments geared towards the construction of health facilities – clinics and hospitals – as well as the strengthening of the health care economic and industrial complex.

Studies on the social and economic development have been focusing on the role of the health care sector, which, in addition to the services available, mobilizes the industrial base: chemical, biotechnology and mechanical, electronics and materials. The service sector weighs the most in the health care economic and industrial complex.²2. Caiado MC. A migração intrametropolitana e o processo de estruturação do espaço urbano na Região Integrada de Desenvolvimento do Distrito Federal e Entorno. Campinas: Núcleo de Estudos de População da UNICAMP; s.d [citado 2014 fev 13]. Disponível em: http://www.nepo.unicamp.br/textos/publicacoes/livros/migracao_urbanas/02pronex_05_Migracao_Intrametropolitana.pdf
http://www.nepo.unicamp.br/textos/public... Its organization follows spatial organization and configures hubs and regions.

Brazil has only recently started to plan health care in regional levels. Although stated in the 1988 constitutional prescription of the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS), it advanced only when the Normas Operacionais de Assistência à Saúde (NOAS – Operational Health Assistance Regulation) were issued, in 2001 and 2002. The 2002 NOAS spurred the creation of regionalization master plans and the organization of health care networks on regional bases according to the needs of the population, defined by epidemiological parameters – and not by the existence and supply of services.

In 2006, the regionalization and tiering of health services, especially those of high complexity, appear in the political and organizational guidelines from thePacto de Gestão (Management Pact, Brazilian Ministry of Health Ordinance nº 399),^aa Ministério da Saúde. Portaria nº 399, de 22 de fevereiro de 2006. Divulga o Pacto pela Saúde 2006 − Consolidação do SUS e aprova as Diretrizes Operacionais do Referido Pacto. Brasília (DF); 2006 [cited 2014 Feb 24]. Available from:http://bvsms.saude.gov.br/bvs/saudelegis/gm/2006/prt0399_22_02_2006.html in the regulation and guidelines of the Pacto pela Vida and Pacto de Gestão (Pact for Life and Management Pact, Brazilian Ministry of Health Ordinance nº 699),^bb Ministério da Saúde. Portaria nº 699, de 30 de março de 2006. Regulamenta as Diretrizes Operacionais dos Pactos Pela Vida e de Gestão. Brasília (DF); 2006 [cited 2014 Feb 24]. Available from: http://dab.saude.gov.br/docs/legislacao/portaria699_30_03_06.pdfhtml and health care networks.^cc Ministério da Saúde. Portaria nº 4.279, de 30 de dezembro de 2010. Estabelece diretrizes para a organização da Rede de Atenção à Saúde no âmbito do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS). Brasília (DF); 2010 [cited 2014 Apr 17]. Available from:http://bvsms.saude.gov.br/bvs/saudelegis/gm/2010/prt4279_30_12_2010.html

Oliveira et al⁶6. Oliveira MHCB, Rehem TCMSB, Amaral TCL, Barros S, Souza RR, Costa VLC, organizadores. Conclusões e Recomendações. In: Atenção à Saúde no SUS. São Paulo: uma perspectiva regional. São Paulo (SP): Secretaria da /Saúde/ FUNDAP; 2008. p.144. (2008) studied SUS health care in the state of Sao Paulo, focusing on the regional perspective in the context of the design of the State Health Plan. We used data from theSistema de Informação Hospitalar (SIH – Hospital Information System) from 2000 and 2006 for hospital care, and from ANS to estimate the population covered by health plans. In that regard, they state:

Regionalization is questioned by Machado.⁴4. Machado JA. Pacto de gestão na Saúde: até onde esperar uma “regionalização solidária e cooperativa? Rev Bras Cienc Soc. 2009;24(71):105-19. DOI:10.1590/S0102-69092009000300008 Creating health care networks would guarantee fair and comprehensive care to all Brazilian citizens – assuming the articulation between municipalities that “export” and those that “import” patients, under the coordination of the state governments. However, the willingness for cooperation would be far from becoming a reality. Venâncio et al⁹9. Venâncio SI, Nascimento PR, Rosa TE, Morais MLS, Martins PN, Voloschko A. Referenciamento regional em saúde: estudo comparado de cinco casos no Estado de São Paulo, Brasil. Cienc Saude Coletiva. 2011;16(9):3951-64. DOI:10.1590/S1413-81232011001000032 examined management practices of regional referral in five regions of the state of Sao Paulo, assessing indicators, instruments used and the perception of regional and municipal managers. The formal mechanisms of regional referral were considered insufficient, as well as the instruments for their follow-up.

The regionalization of health has been a concern of health officials for many years,¹1. Arantes GR, Xavier AR, Rolando E. Uso da invasão e evasão de óbitos para identificar polos de atração médico assistencial: estudo realizado em uma Divisão Regional de Saúde de São Paulo (Brasil). Rev Saude Publica. 1981;15(1):20-37. DOI:10.1590/S0034-89101981000100004 about the articulation between patient exporter and importer municipalities. The presumed flow logic is that the larger the emigration of patients, the lower the ability to provide care for the population locally or regionally. On the other hand, the higher the immigration of patients, the greater the attraction power exerted by the conditions of care supply. Each region has a hub municipality that concentrates the resources of secondary and tertiary-level health care and would receive the full flow of its referral area. In addition, there are diagnostic and treatment resources of intermediate level in satellite cities of the regional hub. Municipalities and importer regions are also, to some extent, exporters. The predominance of one or another type of flow must be clarified. To this end, it is necessary to consider the size of the referral population, the intensity of the flow in either direction, and the sum of both flows in relation to the total demand in the period.

Studying the hospitalization flow in public and private services can contribute to the knowledge of health needs and demands of the population on regionalized bases, and the adequacy of the structure of the regions and comparisons among them. An objective instrument for evaluating the intensity and direction of the flows is important to the regional structure of health care. The demand for diagnostic and treatment resources outside the place of residence allows inferring the degree of resolution of health care according to the existing care modules. Although the universality principle of SUS establishes the right to health care in any service of the system, it is important to know the origin of patients (municipality of residence) to plan assistance to local and regional demands. Concepts such as import and export, outward or inward referral and patient immigration or emigration are used in the literature with some impropriety.

This study aimed to describe the flow of demand for public and private hospital care among health regions in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

METHODS

An exploratory study, based on a cross-section of the database built by Moreira^dd Moreira ML. Readmissões no sistema de serviços hospitalares no Brasil [thesis]. São Paulo (SP): Faculdade de Medicina da USP; 2010. containing the records of all hospitalizations in Brazil by the public and private (health plans and paid by the patient) systems in 2006. Moreira’s study aimed to analyze rehospitalizations in Brazil with data from SIH/SUS and the Comunicação de Internação Hospitalar (CIH – Communication of Hospitalizations) system by DATASUS. A database was created by a sophisticated process of record linkage (Reclink) and linkage with the variables name, sex, municipality of residence, and date of birth by means of pre-defined and tested algorithms. As in SIH, each event (hospitalization) may correspond to a partial billing, referring to part of the period or some of the procedures – a situation also accepted in the CIH related to the period –, three algorithms were set to identify the events the same hospitalization and to compose the record of its data. Thus, it was possible to identify the hospitalizations paid by SUS and those paid by the private system as well as their repetitions informed to the Brazilian Ministry of Health by SIH and CIH, respectively.⁵5. Moreira ML, Novaes HMD. Internações no sistema de serviços hospitalares, SUS e não SUS: Brasil, 2006. Rev Bras Epidemiol. 2011;14(3):411-22. DOI:10.1590/S1415-790X2011000300006

For this study, we selected all hospitalizations financed by SUS and by the private system of people residing in the state of Sao Paulo, Southeastern Brazil, including the ones in other states of the country, from January 1 to December 31, 2006. The hospitalizations were classified according to the municipality of residence and their location in one of the 17 health regions of the state. The estimated population, the number of beds and beds per 1,000 population of eachDepartamento Regional de Saúde (DRS – Regional Health Department), in 2006, were obtained from the State Health Plan.⁸8. Secretaria de Estado da Saúde de São Paulo. Plano Estadual de Saúde 2008-2011. São Paulo; 2008 [citado 2015 jun 3]. Disponível em: http://www.saude.sp.gov.br/resources/ses/perfil/gestor/normas-e-procedimentos/plano_estadual_de_saude_2008_2011.pdf
http://www.saude.sp.gov.br/resources/ses... Hospitalizations were classified according to each DRS (total hospitalizations) and registered as hospitalizations of patients residing in the same region or not, according to the patient’s city of origin. This enabled estimating the number and percentage of patients assisted in their own region; the total number of hospitalizations in each region (column C, Tables 1 and 2) minus the total number of people hospitalized in their region of origin (column E, Tables 1 and 2), which provides the number of immigration cases, i.e., the number of cases coming from other regions; the total number of hospitalized residents (column D, Tables 1 and 2), minus the total number of people hospitalized in their region of origin (column E, Tables 1 and 2), provides the number of cases of emigration, in which the hospitalization occurred outside the region of the patient. The total number of people hospitalized in each DRS, in relation to the resident population per 1,000 inhabitants, shows the coefficient of total hospitalization of each region of the state.

The intensity of the immigration and emigration of patients was estimated by the index of migration effectiveness (ME), used by Caiado.²2. Caiado MC. A migração intrametropolitana e o processo de estruturação do espaço urbano na Região Integrada de Desenvolvimento do Distrito Federal e Entorno. Campinas: Núcleo de Estudos de População da UNICAMP; s.d [citado 2014 fev 13]. Disponível em: http://www.nepo.unicamp.br/textos/publicacoes/livros/migracao_urbanas/02pronex_05_Migracao_Intrametropolitana.pdf
http://www.nepo.unicamp.br/textos/public... This indicator allows quantifying the intensity of patient inflow and outflow and the predominant direction. It is estimated by the net migration rate (immigration less emigration) and the crude migration (immigration plus emigration).

Values close to 1 indicate a strong migratory attraction, close to -1 indicate areas of high emigration, and close to 0, areas with high migratory circulation.

We estimated correlation coefficients between the number of hospital beds and the coefficient of hospitalizations per 1,000 population. We also analyzed the index of migration effectiveness of immigration and emigration o patients from the public (SUS) and private (non-SUS) systems in each Regional Health Department.

RESULTS

There were 2,922,648 hospitalizations in the state of Sao Paulo in 2006, of which 2,808,765 were of Sao Paulo residents hospitalized in this state and 83,389 hospitalized in other states, totaling 2,892,154 hospitalizations of Sao Paulo residents (Table 3). The hub cities have just over 15 million inhabitants, which means that most of the regions have a greater population in the satellite referral area than residing in the hubs – almost 10 times greater in Taubate and Sao Joao da Boa Vista and a little less than the double in the Greater Sao Paulo. The resulting services demand flows represented the dynamics of regionalization in the state.

The global rate of beds per population in the state was low (1.53 per 1,000 population), with wide variation between regions (Table 3). The Regional Health Departments that presented the highest percentage of beds per inhabitants were Barretos (2.6), Sao Jose do Rio Preto (2.5), Bauru (2.5), and Presidente Prudente (2.4). Barretos and Bauru have specialized hospitals that are national references in the areas of Oncology and craniofacial abnormalities, which explains their high number of beds. The Regional Departments with lowest rates of beds per population were Registro (1.0), Campinas (1.2), and Sorocaba (1.2). The global hospitalization coefficient including public and private hospitals (SUS and private system) of the Sao Paulo state was low (70.4 hospitalizations per 1,000 population), although it showed wide variation between regions. The health regions with the greatest coefficients of hospitalizations per 1,000 inhabitants were Sao Jose do Rio Preto (127.6), Presidente Prudente (111.0), Sao Joao da Boa Vista (104.9), Barretos (104.4), and Marilia (103.3). Those with the lowest coefficients of hospitalization of the resident population were Registro (45.0), the Greater Sao Paulo (59.4), Taubate (59.5), and Piracicaba (60.5). The estimation of the correlation coefficient indicated a high positive association between the index of beds per population and the coefficient of hospitalizations per 1,000 population (r = 0.88). In the state average, 69.9% of hospitalizations occurred in SUS and the highest percentage occurred in the regions of Registro (95.8), Aracatuba (86.8), and Taubate (81.0), and the lowest in Presidente Prudente (61.4), Campinas (62.2), and Franca (64.2) (Table 1). In general, the hospitalizations by SUS occurred in the patient’s region in 97.6% of cases – suggesting that the regionalization of SUS is appropriate, i.e., 2.4% sought care successfully in another region (emigration). The health regions provided care for people from other regions of the state (immigration) in 3.2% of the cases. All health regions had cases of immigration and emigration (columns F and G). Estimating migration effectiveness (column H) enabled quantifying and detecting the predominance of the flow in one direction or another. Positive values above 0.50 were considered evidence of strong migratory attraction (immigration) for SUS, which was the case of the regions of Bauru (0.78), Ribeirao Preto (0.69), Barretos (0.65), and Sao Paulo (0.56), i.e., regions that attract patient flows for SUS care. Conversely, the regions that presented negative migration effectiveness indexes (below -0.50) were considered of strong SUS emigration, which was the case for the regions of Franca (-0.80), Marilia, Araraquara and Registro (-0.77), and Aracatuba (-0.71), i.e., regions that stimulate emigration and fail to cover the local demand, although Aracatuba and Marilia have high beds/population rates.

In the state average, 30.1% of hospitalizations occurred in private systems, the highest in the regions of Sao Jose do Rio Preto (41.7), Presidente Prudente (38.6), Campinas (37.8), and Franca (35.8); and the smallest in Registro (4.2), Aracatuba (13.2), and Taubate (19.0) (Table 2). The estimation of the index of migration effectiveness indicated the regions of Sao Jose do Rio Preto (0.87) and Campinas (0.64) as those most attracting hospitalizations by private plans. Emigration in search of private assistance was more intense in Registro (-0.87), the region with the lowest beds/population rate, Aracatuba (-0.81), Barretos (-0.70) and Baixada Santista (-0.56).

The study of hospital demand flows in the state of Sao Paulo in 2006 showed as problematic the regions of Aracatuba, Registro and Baixada Santista, which presented strong emigration of patients to public and private care, indicating a lack of both types of health care (Table 4). The regions of Araraquara, Franca, Marilia, Piracicaba, Presidente Prudente, and Sao Joao da Boa Vista showed a high rate of migration for public care. Two regions – Campinas and Sao Jose do Rio Preto – had a high attraction to private care, and both showed balance in the SUS flows. The region of Ribeirao Preto showed high public flow and balance in private flows. The regions of Sorocaba and Taubate showed balance in public and private flows.

DISCUSSION

The municipalities of the state of Sao Paulo had major differences regarding socioeconomic development and population density in 2009.⁷7. Sala A, Mendes JDV. Perfil de indicadores da atenção primária à saúde no Estado de São Paulo: retrospectiva de 10 anos. Saude Soc. 2011;20(4):912-26. DOI:10.1590/S0104-12902011000400009 Of them, 11.3% had over 100,000 inhabitants and all were classified as high-wealth in the Índice Paulista de Responsabilidade Social (Sao Paulo Index of Social Responsibility); 61.7% had less than 20,000 inhabitants and 70.4% were classified as of low wealth. Although only 73 municipalities were included among the large ones, they had nearly 75.0% of the state population. This illustrates the great dependence of the smallest municipalities on the largest ones and, therefore, the importance of the issue of regionalization of health in the state of Sao Paulo. Larger, wealthier municipalities become hubs and attract the population of smaller, poorer municipalities. Thus, regionalization is the instrument to try to compensate for inequality and provide equal opportunities for disadvantaged populations.

The invention of the migration effectiveness indicator, applied to the study of the flows of the demand for hospitalization in the state of Sao Paulo, resulted in an index that allows quantitatively ranking the proportion of cases of patient immigration and emigration among health regions of the state, and the higher prevalence of one or another. This perspective facilitates the qualitative classification of municipalities and health regions according to balance in migration flows or strong attraction or emigration of patients for public (SUS) or private care. It was surprising to find out that the region of Greater Sao Paulo – hub of hospital resources, especially of tertiary level, but with large population concentration – presented a low coefficient of hospitalization of the local population, suggesting a possible relative shortage of beds due to a much higher external demand. The regions of Sao Jose do Rio Preto and Campinas showed no patient emigration for SUS – the first one with high beds/population rate, unlike the second one. Registro showed a high emigration for private hospital care demand, probably for lack of public care supply. Aracatuba, with 2.12 beds per 1,000 inhabitants, presented high emigration for private care, probably for problems of access to existing beds.

While the total number of cases detected as immigration or emigration is relatively small (5.6% and 9.5% of the public and private hospitalizations), it afflicts a population weakened by disease. The aim of the policy of health regionalization in hospital care would be to assure access and reduce inequalities, which, in the state of Sao Paulo, is an unfinished task. Table 4could be complemented with the study of health problems – diagnoses and treatments – that constitute specific demands in the different regions of the state.

The public and private hospitalization systems are not stagnant. There are exchanges between them, depending on the oscillation of the funding of public care and private plans. Thus, this view applies to the year of the study, and the future trends of the flows will follow the policies of hospital care.

REFERENCES

Publication Dates

History