Integralidade da assistência: a narrativa de usuários egressos de Unidade de Terapia Intensiva no Sistema Único de Saúde

Abstract

This study investigates the search for care undertaken by users within the formal health system, having the objectives: to analyze and describe the health care trajectory of users, discharged from an Intensive Care Unit in the health system, from the perspective of comprehensiveness; to identify in the users' trajectories the positive and negative factors for effective integration; to discuss the impact of the organization of services and professional practices on the user's health-illness process. To this end, the study sets forth over three interconnected ideas: the principle of comprehensiveness as a central concept; the Health System, involving issues regarding organization and local planning; and the medical care trajectories undertaken and described by the subjects seeking care. Data collection took place from May to November 2011 with persons who were hospitalized in 2010. Nine people were interviewed, with ages of 29-79 years, from different social classes. The interviews were conducted in the city of Juiz de For a (Minas Gerais), which functions as a referral center for medium and high complexity procedures. This is a qualitative methodology study using a narrative collection technique. The research findings describe the care trajectory for each subject plotted before and after their stay in the intensive care unit. Trajectory was analyzed in four categories: system access, secondary care, tertiary care, and between levels. The discussion includes the integration of health services and comprehensiveness in the trajectories, based on the values of attention and accountability. The centrality of the user, originating in trajectories, allows an analysis based on realities, observing the pain and aggravation of illness during their course. Trajectory research holds great potential in the analysis of the health care network, and demonstrates the difference between the idealized management view and the limits users encounter in the real operation of the system. The trajectory shows the fragmentation of activities among the levels of care, the discontinuity of medical care, and offers a contribution to the health system in presenting alternatives to overcome the gaps in effective integration as a principle of health policy.