Dados do Trabalho

Título

Effectiveness of a program assisting in resolving critical resource shortages in Brazilian Public Intensive Care Units via Tele-ICU

Objetivo

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing a program that supports the resolution of critical shortages of resources in Brazilian public ICUs through tele-ICU.

Métodos

A retrospective study was conducted. We examined all notifications of critical shortages of supplies recorded by the tele-ICU team at Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein (HIAE) between December 19, 2022 and August 25, 2023, within the scope of the Tele-UTI Brazil, a PROADI-SUS project that provides assistance to 17 public ICUs in a total of 168 beds.

Resultados

A total of 313 shortage notifications were analyzed. A total of 79,2% were successfully resolved, while 20,7% are still in the process of resolution. Among the notifications, 16,13% were attributed to a lack of laboratory resources, 12,10% to equipment defects, 13,71% unavailability of complementary exams, 6,85% to the necessity of patient transfers to other hospitals or ICUs, 21,77% to shortages of medications, 12,10 % to shortages of materials and 17,34% others. All resolved notifications were managed by the local teams with support from the HIAE team. The provided assistance primarily focused on communication processes and administrative tasks. A total of 79,84 % of the notifications were solved through communication processes and administrative tasks and only 20,16 % of the problems required government interventions or management companies.

Conclusão

The program effectively contributed to resolving local issues through tele-ICU. The majority of critical shortages of resources in Brazilian public ICUs were primarily linked to communication-related problems rather than a lack of financial resources.