Monitoring Patient Flow in the Emergency Care Units (UPA) in the City of Guarulhos, São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

Performance indicators are an important tool for managers to identify how their organization is performing over time. Thus, a concept of the patient's timeline within the health unit was defined, which consists of monitoring from entry to exit, considering all the steps that patients went through during their stay in the emergency care units (UPA). This concept was applied to allow the monitoring of the performance of two UPA's being classified as (1) and (2) in the city of Guarulhos, SP. Data treatment was realized by Excel and were collected from 383 patients (UPA 1 only odd days) and 1123 patients (UPA 2 all days) between 02/01/2021 and 02/28/2021 then proceeded to the organization of data to analyze the processes flow involved. Patients were grouped according to risk classification—red, orange, yellow, green, and blue—and especially medical clinic, orthopedics, pediatrics, dental attendance. Both UPA evaluated the major attendance were classified with green and blue, and in terms of treatment, the medical clinic was priority when compared with others offered in these UPA.