Crise e oportunidade: O caso dos hospitais filantrópicos da região centro sul fluminense do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.

Abstract

According to DATASUS data, the Brazilianphilanthropic sector comprise about 2,100 hospitals with over 155,000 bed, which represents 31 % of total beds in the country. With one third of the hospital beds in the country, the philanthropic sector feature as an important provider ofthe SUS, as well as to the health insurance sub-system. These figures demonstrate the importance of the philanthropic sector nationally and in several regions, such as south central region of the state of Rio de Janeiro. The huge complexity and diversity of the philanthropic hospital network brings many and varied challenges, both for hospital operation, and for government policies to maintain the health sector. In addition to the low value in the SUSpayoff table, these hospitalsare also facing other problems, such as financial ceilings, that lead to lower payment than what is actually produced, late payments, hampering planning and financial balance, closure of bank credit lines, difficulties in negotiations with managers, among many others. All these difficulties have critical consequences in the management of these organizations that are under financial crises, in need of professional qualifications and improvement in their facilities and equipment. This research proposes to study the situation of philanthropic hospitals in the Central-South Fluminense State of Rio de Janeiro in the area of financial, as well as the perception of managers on the difficulties of the sector, its prospects and proposals for possible solutions. It was used an exploratory methodology, with qualitative and quantitative approach, with multiple case studies, using different sources for data collection, primary sources, secondary and semi-structured interview. The results demonstrated the importance of the philanthropic hospitals in the production of health services to the heath-unified system (SUS) and the need to formulate specific policies to maintain them as SUS-related. In the central southern of the state of Rio de Janeiro, there is a complementarity between public and philanthropic network. Although it is recognized the historic and strategic importance of these hospitals to provide services to the SUS, continuing the current conditions in the areas of capacity, organizational or financial, there is no doubt that the future of these institutions will be uncertain with significant risks to continuity of services provided and the very survival of hospitals. There is urgent need for public managers to seek and implement flexible management models, aiming at establishing a partnership with the philanthropic hospitals and to define their actions by tangible and achievable goals.