THE WORKING TIME DISTRIBUTION TO FAMILY PHYSICIANS IN BRAZIL

Introduction and Objective: There are few studies that describe working time distribution of family physicians in Family Health Units (FHU). So, the aim was to identify how physicians working time are distributed in Brazilian’s FHU. Method: In 2013, the work sampling technique was performed through intermittent observations every 10 minutes during 8 hours in five days. The support tool is composed by 39 interventions and it was developed and validated by researchers. Were done observations in five regions, 10 states, 12 cities and 27 FHU. All of FHU are considered good according to National Program for Improving Access and Quality of Primary Care (PMAQ-AB). Results: Were done 8556 observations in 48 physicians. They spend 51.6% of their working time in direct and indirect care activities. The most of was spend in medical appointment (24.1%), spontaneous demand (8.4%) and home visit (3.4%). In addition, was noted some percentage of time that: they is not present in the FHU, such as delays and early departures (32.4%); standby time (4.1%); personal time (7.1%) and unit related activities (1%). Other results are: 80% of the time related to spontaneous demand occurred in the period from 6 am to 10 am and 60% of the medical appointments were held between the 6 am and 12 am. Conclusion: This research provides an overview about activities that physicians usually do and how are distributed during their working day in different FHU realities. Besides of this, these results supporting the workforce planning and debates about working process organization to promote access.