Low risk emergencies: integration analysis between primary care and Emergency Care Unit

Abstract

The study aims to analyze the attention given to low risk emergencies in an area of high socioenvironmental vulnerability in Rio de Janeiro, within the scope of the Family Health Strategy and the local Emergency Care Unit. The methodology used relied on a triangulation of data and sources obtained from medical records, direct observation, interviews, and focal groups with managers, workers and users. The service was analyzed according to diagnosis, type of occurrence, and sociodemographic data; the qualitative data was analyzed through thematic analysis, generating the categories: which urgency for which service; territorial issues; access; positive and negative aspects of services. As a result, the Family Health Strategy takes on the function of answering to urgencies. Previous experiences influence the pattern of users’ access. Socio-environmental fragility increases demand, stresses the Strategy’s programmatic service, and can generate risks by the fast treatment at the Emergency Care Unit, which has been a place of hospitalization, due to the scarcity of hospital beds. The two services work with partial integration. The conclusion shows that the levels of satisfaction with the Family Health Strategy indicated by the population and its centrality to the care networks are enhanced by the accommodation of urgencies.