Scientific Production on hospitalization services evaluation: an integrative review

Abstract

This study aimed to identify and to analyze the scientific production on hospitalization services evaluation in the scope of the Single Health System in the period between 1988 and 2007. The methodology used was a research integrative review using the descriptors evaluation; hospitalization; single health system. A search in the databases LILACS, MEDLINE and BDENF was carried out. A total of ten publications in Portuguese attended to the inclusion criteria, two dissertations and eight national published articles. It was observed the production is concentrated in the Southeast region of Brazil, from 2001 to 2004. From a detailed reading and the publications synthesis it was possible to evidence, by content similarity, that some authors approach methodological and conceptual aspects on the health evaluation while the others approach the evaluation of the production of health services. The small number of publications in the studied period indicates that this area has potential to be explored toward the acquisition of knowledge in order to support the system management and the training of human resources in health incorporating evaluation to the work process.