COUNTER-REFERRAL DIFFICULTIES IN AN EMERGENCY CARE UNIT: IMPACT OF COVID-19
Navarro Maldonado, Ximena Alejandra
- 1Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
- 2Secretaria Municipal de Saúde de Florianópolis
- 3
Journal
Texto E Contexto Enfermagem
ISSN
1980-265X
0104-0707
Open Access
gold
Volume
33
ABSTRACT Objective: to describe the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on counter-referral in an Emergency Care Unit. Method: a descriptive, qualitative study conducted with 13 health professionals. Data were collected through individual, semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the Collective Subject Discourse technique. Results: five speeches were extracted from the interviews about the influence of the pandemic on counter-referral which reveal the difficulties in this process: before the pandemic, overcrowding of specific basic health units that were unable to absorb the population demand and a lack of professionals in teams stood out; the difficulty during the pandemic was in relation to prioritizing care for respiratory symptomatic patients in basic units and the use of communication technology in care and scheduling appointments; there is still difficulty in the transpandemic time in providing care in basic units and the consequent overload in the Emergency Care Unit. Conclusion: COVID-19 had a negative impact on implementing counter-referral with difficulties in logistics, resources and structure, represented by access for the general population, which was even more limited in basic units due to the pandemic.