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EVALUATION OF THE REFERENCING AND COUNTER-REFERENCING SYSTEM PERFORMED AT A FAMILY HEALTH CENTER IN FORTALEZA, BRAZIL

ANA BEATRIZ FERNANDES SOBREIRA 1 ; ANNA BEATRIZ VIANA CARDOSO DANTAS 1 ; ANTONIO SILVA LIMA NETO 1 ; DÉBORA VIEIRA LOIOLA COUTINHO 1 ; EDUARDO FLORÊNCIO QUEIROZ CUNHA 1 ; FELLIPE MOTA AMORIM 1 ; MAYRA DIÓGENES BRAGA LIMA 2
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Introduction and objectives: The Family Health Program (FHP) is composed by multidisciplinary teams who are responsible for their users through time and have the duty, if it is necessary, to refer them to higher attention levels, providing an integrated and longitudinal assistance. This study aimed to analyze, through the FHP user’s perspectives, if the referencing and counter-referencing system performed at Family Health Center (FHC) in undeveloped community in Fortaleza is being done correctly. Method: Quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional study performed from August to October 2013, including residents above 18 years of a poor neighborhood in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. We collected the data using an adaptation of The Assessment Instrument Manual for Primary Health Care - PCA Tool Brazil, 2010, and analyzed it in Epi Info program for Windows version 3.5.4. The ethical aspects were obeyed. Results and conclusions: The analyzed data showed that 54,2% of the patients claimed that they had been referred to specialized service during their following at the FHC. 47,4% of those 54,2% revealed that the doctor or nurse that referred them didn‘t write any message to the specialist regarding why they needed that consult, and 36,5% revealed that the results of the consult were not questioned by the professional after it happened. Those results indicate that the FHP teams are failing to keep a communication with the services from other attention levels that are too attending the users, which generates great harm to the patients, given the fact that an integrated care becomes impaired.