The waiting time for specialized medical consultations in a small municipality of Minas Gerais, Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Vieira, Ed Wilson Rodrigues
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Lima, Thais Moreira Nascimento, Gazzinelli, Andréa
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Reme (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/reme/article/view/49607
• topic: Tempo para o Tratamento; Medicina; Especialização; Listas de Espera; Acesso aos Serviços de Saúde; Tiempo de Tratamiento, Medicina; Especialización; Listas de Espera; Accesibilidad a los Servicios de Salud; Time-to-Treatment, Medicine; Especialization; Waiting Lists; Health Services Accessibility

OBJECTIVE: to evaluate the waiting time for specialized medical consultations in a small municipality, far from large urban centers, and located in an economically undeveloped region in Minas Gerais State, Brazil. METHOD: this was a case study with a descriptive approach that followed and analyzed in a six months period (July 2011 to January 2012), 152 referrals of patients to specialized medical consultations not offered in the municipality. The referrals were analyzed with regard to referencing and consultation scheduling using a structured instrument for data collection. A descriptive analysis was performed and the average number of waiting days was compared between variables of interest. RESULTS: the majority of referrals (74.3%) were to specialists forwarded by primary care physicians. Requests for the first consultation represented 88.8% of referrals, and their main demand went to otorhinolaryngology (36.3%). The average waiting time for the first consultation, regardless of the specialty, was 244 days (standard deviation = 193, median = 198), rangingfrom six to 559 days. Only 3.7% of patients waited three months or less, and another 5.2% waited three to six months. At the end of the six months of the study period, 91.1% of the followed patients were still waiting for the specialized consultation. All the fulfilled consultations were in services located in the State capital, 700 km away. CONCLUSION: the access to specialized consultation is fragile, with long waiting time, directly affecting the integrality of care.