Perinatal Health Networks in the Province Buenos Aires, Argentina

DANIEL MACEIRA; ALFREDO PALACIOS

Sydney

Otro; International Health Economics Association; 2013

International Health Economics Association

The objective of the study is to analyze the structure and organization of two health networks of Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina; from the perspective of the head of networks in perinatal networks. Two of the most important public hospitals in the province are selected: the Hospital San Martín of La Plata and Hospital Mi Pueblo of Florencio Varela. The study provides evidence about the ways in which patients pass through the health system from prenatal care until medical discharge or home monitoring. The observation from the head of network facilitates the monitoring of certain processes and obtaining sensitive information on the network work. The results of the study shows that the provincial and municipal decentralization affect the functioning of the network structures. Therefore, the networks do not exist as a formal space, but each hospital develop roads of care attention, without referral protocols, continuous and planned structures of training of human resources between peripheral hospitals and centers, common medical records, etc.