Unimed System Sustem Sustainability Report 2015

Unimed System Sustainability Report

The Improvement Science in Practice

The Health Services Quality Management course was offered by Unimed do

Brasil through Serviço Nacional de Aprendizagem do Cooperativismo (Ses-

coop) of São Paulo, in partnership with the Unimed Foundation, and taught

by Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) – one of the best world refer-

ences in terms of quality and improvement processes. The training aimed at

replicating the methodology used by IHI, preparing professionals for them to

turn health services more efficient, seeking processes sustainability, how to

increase the normal childbirth percentage, reduce hospital infections and de-

crease waiting times.

The project is inedited in Brazil and counted on the participation of 24 Unimed

System and Uniodonto cooperatives, totaling 27 projects. Among them, three

were chosen and presented their results at the 26th IHI Health Quality Forum

and their authors made a technical visit to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital,

in the United States, in December 2014. Consequently the program also re-

duced costs, and these projects added savings amounted to approximately R$

7 million.

The projects choice was more than just defining their participation at the Fo-

rum, but to acknowledge the paramount role of assistance actions and patient

safety improvement, engaging and encouraging the multiplication of acquired

knowledge, as well as professional improvement and health management

technologies implementation in the cooperatives environment, valuing proj-

ects seeking the Improvement Science in Practice.