Metodologia para a seleção de técnicas de pesquisa operacional na área de saúde

Abstract

Systems for Health Assistance play a strategic role in the maintenance of social welfare. Whether in public or private sphere, there is an ongoing concern to keep the numerous areas of service working with quality, availability, appropriate cost, etc. Historically, since the 1960s, studies of Operational Research (OR) are applied in the many areas of Healthcare, seeking to improve levels of productivity and efficiency, reducing costs, improving the utilization of human and material resources. It turns out that not always these studies, models and implementations made by OR experts are well received, understood or implemented by managers, analysts and technicians of Healthcare. In this study, a broad literature review confirms this problem and identifies some of the most critical areas in healthcare systems and the most recurring problems. As an input, this paper present a methodology intended to guide participants in problem solving in Health Systems. The main role of the proposal is to include the professional of the healthcare area in the decision making process, seeking, together with experts in Operational Research, to improve the performance level of the Health Service provided. At the end of the paper is an analysis of the proposals and contributions of this study as well as the perspective of developments and future changes. An implementation is performed, based on an Emergency Medical System (EMS) in a large Brazilian capital, considering actual parameters of the system and a consistent database. The bases and ambulances location problem is solved with an optimization model for Facilities Location and the proposed scenarios are tested in a modeling through a Discrete Event Simulation. The results are shown and a discussion is held.